Spending tracking questions

[Annie7]

I'm a newbie who decided to track our spending so we know where exactly our money goes. Wanted to find out if the way I'm going about it is appropriate.

We charge most things and pay the cc in full each month. We withdraw cash from our checking account as we run low. We buy things when we need them, not really saving up for it since we know we'll have the money. DS15 will be going to college soon and I need to know how much to budget for his spending money then - how can I do that if I don't know how much we spend? Also, will need to pay for his college - no hopes of aid since we make too much. DH was paying the bills and I wasn't paying any attention even to our fixed costs like utilities, etc. As you can see, we have a very relaxed and cavalier attitude to our spending and I want to change that. So, I decided to track our spending and see if we can put more into savings.

For my budget, the income I'm taking into consideration is the take-home-pay. The 401K (maxed out by both of us), health/dental/vision/LTD/STD/taxes/HSA are all taken out before the money comes to our checking account. The insurance plan is such that I have no copay during the visit, but I have a high deductible. So, I'm billed after the visit and I pay using the HSA card. I have enough in it to not pay with my take-home money. So, I didn't include medical/insurance expenses in my budget. Is that how you would do it?

I took the download from my bank for the entire 2010 and from my credit card for the past 4 months. I averaged the amount spent in each category that I want to track. I'm going to put that amount as the alloted money for that category for each month. Things like property tax/AAA/Auto insurance etc which are not monthly are still averaged per month and the money put into that category.

Since for now I'm only tracking to get an idea, I'm considering the date the CC was charged or the bank cleared the payment as the date the money was spent.

Once I see how February goes with this method, I can look into reducing the allocation for some categories and divert that to savings.

Do you think this is a good start or am I missing something? Any constructive criticism of my method of tracking will be appreciated.

[Deleted]

This looks like a really good start Anne. The only question would be how you categorize the spending.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

If that approach works for you ~ great! Do you keep track of what you do with your cash?

[Annie7]

Molly, I don't know yet if this will work for me ;D As I mentioned, I just started this past weekend. That's why I asked here in this nicer forum (and not on YM ) to find out if there's something glaringly wrong. I know I will not be able to track to the penny or even dollar. I don't want to either - just want to be able to understand where the money is going in general.

I do plan on keeping track of my cash. I started yet another spreadsheet for my cash purchases so I can put it in the correct category. I withdrew money yesterday, so I can start the month with cash. I've already spent $13.68 on lunch yesterday with my son.

Later, the categories are:

Mortgage,
Gas/Electric,
Water,
Waste,
Security,
Netflix (planning to move from 3 DVDs at a time to 1),
Newspaper,
FIOS (TV/Internet/Landline),
Cell Phone,
Grocery,
Dining,
Entertainment,
Household (home consumables, personal, kids stuff, gifts for their friends's birthdays, grooming, etc - mainly non-grocery stuff), Furniture/Durables,
Home Repair,
Auto,
Gas,
Home Cleaning,
Kids activities,
AAA,
Investment (this is for DH to play with our savings doing trading - his hobby)
Property tax
ATM withdrawals

I am hoping to reduce the last one - ATM - and put the expenditure in the correct category.

However, I'm sure I haven't included many things yet. So, wondering what I'm missing.

[Deleted]

You will realise what you are missing when you go to fill it in. At least that's how it was for me At a glance I would bet you are hiding the waste in "Household".

[dudleydoright]

Annie....here is a link to a website with a "home budget worksheet". It is a simple Excel spreadsheet but I have been using it for over a year and it works great. And its free!
www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/home-budget-worksheet.html
One suggestion is to put the expense into the worksheet as soon as you spend the money. It doesn't matter how the money is transferred (cash, credit card, bank draft, etc). For instance, if you go grocery shopping and use your credit card, put the expense into the spreadsheet immediately in the proper category, don't wait until you pay the credit card bill.
Good luck.

[Apple]

DD--Thanks for the link. I don't ever "budget" but with everything going on I should really start trying to get something going a little better.

Annie--looks like you've got most of the stuff covered in your list. The one thing I'll mention that will likely go up in a year or so is car insurance (when the teen starts driving) if you don't plan on him paying it himself.

[Sharon]

I am needing to be a little more ruthless then you are so I have way more categories. It will probably take you a month or two to figure out what works for you. You will add an subtract categories and after a couple of months it should gel.

I have things broken down by food, household products, hygiene, newspapers, gifts, entertainment etc. It works for me and you will find what works for you. Okay so I am anal about the whole process and have about 30 categories.

[blackcard]

I did this a few years ago. I wrote a check for everything I could. Which was almost everything. It was easy to see where my money went that way.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I did things the old fashioned way to see where our spending was ... I wrote down every single thing we spent money on for a month. It was tedious and time-consuming, but it was also really eye-opening. Granted, it didn't give us a precise look at every month., but I did realize that we spent a lot of money at Target and CVS that we really didn't realize.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Thanks for the website. I downloaded a few, and then got to wondering if there is something (template) for excel that has a daily sheet that is linked to a monthly sheet which in turn is linked to an annual sheet? Where you plug in figures on a daily basis in the correct category, and then it keeps a running tally for the month?

[Annie7]

Later, you are right, I'll know when I see it ;D

Dudley, thanks for the spreadsheet link. I'll download it and take a look. When I get into the next phase of "budgeting" rather than just tracking our spending, I will take your suggestion of considering the money gone when I buy the item.

Apple, good point He'll be getting his permit end of July and I'll probably have to include him then, huh?

Sharon, thanks. For now, I think I don't want to track to that detail.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I'm going to keep them in mind for when I am ready in a month or two to start budgeting and not just tracking.

[TrixAre4Kids]

Cheesy, It looks like there is a set of spreadsheets on that site called Money Management Template, for daily/monthly/yearly but it doesn't say upfront if they are linked or not. Trix