That day is coming. Microsoft has officially discontinued the Money program and I figure I have a few years before I can no longer install the version of Money that I own onto another computer.

When I do finally switch to another home finance program, it’ll be Quicken. I believe it is always better to have my files stored on my computer and not on a server far, far away, except as a backup. I won’t be using internet based software to keep my home finances up to date. I prefer to manage my money right here where my computer resides.

All that said brings me to my point. I can’t go back to using pen and paper for my checkbook, nor any of my other financial records, such as my home inventory, my budget, or my cash flow forecast.

Quicken Deluxe is an easy to use, reliable software solution for managing your household finances. It will allow me to continue to manage my home finances in the way I’m used to managing them (or micro-managing them if you want to be honest).

If you’re ready to save time and money by taking better care of your home finance issues, give Quicken a try.

Right now there’s a $20 discount available. I hope it’s still around when I need it. :)

Quicken also has a Premier edition, but unless you have special tax planning issues or investments you’d like to track, Quicken Deluxe should work fine for you. I know it will work well for me.

Post from: Home Management Tips

Manage Your Finances With Software

Are you interested in setting up a budget or learning more about the budgeting process?

I’ve written about budgeting several times on this site. Here are the links.

• 6 Steps to a Working Budget
• Sample Household Budget (to view or print)
• Budgeting for Gifts
• Gifts Budget (spreadsheet)

Here are some more budgeting articles you might find useful.

• Personal Budgeting: How to Create a Budget
• Budgeting for Your Peace of Mind
• Household Budgeting: Secrets to Marital and Money Bliss
• Household Budget: 10 Sneaky Saving Strategies
• Home Budget: Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Post from: Home Management Tips

Getting Started with a Budget

To make the entire process as simple as possible, I’ve uploaded a spreadsheet that I use to track those budgeted gift amounts. By taking the time to complete the spreadsheet and list all the people I’ll be buying for this year, I save myself time later in trying to track gifted amounts and gift values. This also helps keep me from having to worry about gifting too much to one person and not having enough for someone else—think in-laws, children, and siblings…

This spreadsheet includes three sheets:

1. Instructions
2. Christmas
3. Other Gifts (including anniversaries, birthdays, etc.)

The gifts budget spreadsheet is available as a free download on my templates page.

I hope you find it useful. If you do, please consider leaving me a comment.

Post from: Home Management Tips

Budgeting for gifts

If you have a checking account, then you know what it’s like to struggle with your monthly bank reconciliations. Debit cards have turned checkbooks into minefields of unrecorded transactions and missing withdrawals. One way around this problem is to use your computer for your home finances, because if you don’t know what your cash balances are, you can’t make sound financial decisions for your spending.

About ten years ago, I started keeping my checkbook register in a software program. I kept my paper checkbook register too, but I used Microsoft Money as my main checkbook. I had to record transactions twice but I kept this up for years before I threw in the towel on the paper register.

I still use Money today. The main reason I haven’t tried another service is because I have so much data in the program and in archives that I’m afraid it will be too much trouble to switch. That’s not to say I’m not happy with Money, but there are other quality personal finance software programs available these days that are completely free.

Keeping your checkbook on your computer has several great advantages over a paper checkbook. Here are a few of the most critical benefits.

1. Budgeting is easier, because most computerized checkbooks are part of feature rich software programs that let you view and create detailed spending reports. You can track where your money has gone in previous months and keep up with where it’s going this month.
2. Reconciling your balances is easier. Unless you make a data entry mistake, you’re not going to run into problems of bad math.
3. Planning your spending is as easy as writing a check and seeing where your balance will be when you’re done. It’s easy to change transaction dates and re-organize expenses without messing up a paper check register.
4. Paying overdraft fees will be a thing of the past because you won’t leave out important transactions, if you take advantage of the capability of most home finance software to download and import transactions directly from your bank accounts. This step can save you plenty of bank fees if you have a habit of forgetting to write down your ATM withdrawals or debit card transactions. Before we married, this happened to my husband. His checking ended up overdrawn when he forgot to put down two cash withdrawals in his checkbook. He paid some hefty NSF fees before he got the mess straightened up.

Each of these items are essential steps in maintaining your money. Budgeting, planning, and accurate record keeping make life better for the home manager.

Time is as important to me as my money, and the time I save by having my checkbook on my computer makes up for the additional cost I pay to keep my version of Money up to date. Even if you can’t bring yourself to pay for software, there are plenty of options out there. Quicken is a respected name in the personal finance software market and they recently started offering their online product as a completely free option. You might want to give them a try if you think you’d like to start keeping better financial records.

And seriously, keeping great financial records for your household really can be as easy as writing a check.

Post from: Home Management Tips

Keeping your household’s financial records can be as easy as writing a check

Budgets are an essential element of well-managed household finances. It’s easy to forget that budgeting isn’t about depriving yourself. Budgeting is about setting limits and sticking to them. Just as you know that if you overeat too often, you’re going to gain weight, you should know that if you don’t set limits with your spending, you’re going to end up in debt.

Your financial health depends on your ability to set a realistic budget and then to maintain that budget. There are some specific steps you can take to get your budget off the ground.

1. Set up budget categories

Set up categories for your budget, such as automobile maintenance, home maintenance, groceries, dining out, cleaning supplies, income taxes, toys for the kids, toys for the adults, and any other expenses you think you might have. Fill these categories with genuine and true estimates. If you know you’ve spent $500. on groceries in the past month, it’s a sure bet you’ll spend that much or more next month. See the sample household budget for examples.

2. Know your income

Calculate your income from previous months. In this category, it’s better to underestimate than overestimate, but don’t be afraid to be as accurate as possible. Fake numbers aren’t fooling anyone. Fake numbers also make a budget worthless.

3. Don’t panic, yet

Don’t try to trim your expenses until after you’ve completed your first budget. You want to see if you’re overspending or underspending BEFORE you decide what you need to do about it.

4. Know your bottom line

After you’ve subtracted your expenses from your income, you can begin to panic. Give yourself no more than 5 minutes for this, because in truth, panic won’t help you. And if you’re lucky enough to discover that you have money left over every month, decide how you want to celebrate. For the rest of us, this is the time to see where we can realistically expect to be successful at cutting back our expenditures.

5. Trim your expenses

It’s easy to chop away at the grocery and gas categories, but it’s unrealistic. Most of us aren’t overspending in these categories. Look hard at the leisure categories, the toy categories—for both children and adults, the dining out and the cell phone bills. These are the categories that will have the least impact on your household in the long run. You can’t cut back home maintenance—in fact, most people don’t set aside enough in this category, or in the auto maintenance category.

6. Put aside excess, and if there’s no excess, create some

When you do have money to spare, save it. If you budget for a splurge, you’re much more likely to enjoy it without feeling guilty! If there’s no money left for saving, then you haven’t cut enough flab from your budget. Saving should be your number one goal.

Now you have a working budget. You know how much money you have coming in and you know what you’re going to spend. Stick to it. Don’t think of it as a review, think of it as a spending plan. Look at it tomorrow and every day after, and spend your money where you said you would.

The purpose of your budget is not to show you where you spent yesterday’s money, but to guide you as you spend today’s.

Here’s a sample household budget of income and expenses with sample categories already set up.

Post from: Home Management Tips

6 Steps to a Working Budget