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May 16, 2008Develop a budget — very easy to do on paper or in Excel on your family PC or laptop. The best way is to list out both income and expenses and see where to cut if cuts are needed. Too many lunches out? Too many Starbuck’s visits? Where is all of your money going? If you are not going to splurge on Quickbooks or Quicken, these cheap/free programs will help you figure it out:
Download Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 onto your computer for free. Tracks both income and expenses.
The following programs and sites track your expenses and spending:
PearBudget is a really simple budgeting and expense tracking service. According to them, PearBudget is:
- Perfect if you’re new to budgeting, or if you feel overwhelmed by your finances
- Simpler and easier to use than Quicken or Microsoft Money
- Create a budget and try the full program for free (no credit card or e-mail needed). If you like it and want to save your account, it’s only $3 per month. Cancel at any time.
Mint.com is a free online money management system. Once your accounts are added, Mint.com retrieves new transactions and balances from most bank, credit card and investment accounts automatically, every day.
Yodlee.com is a free online banking account aggregation service. Yodlee has a spending report, with categories for each specific transaction. The service also contains a Bill Pay service, where you can make your payments to some of the accounts you’ve added, such as credit card bills and phone bills. Once you are signed up for Yodlee, there is a forum of users that share tips and discuss ways that they are using the service Here.
Wesebe.com is a free goal and community based online money management system. Wesabe not only tracks your spending but also shows you tips based on your spending habits. Once you set a goal, Wesebe offers tips specific to each goal and provides tools for setting spending targets attached to your goals.
See also: Take control of your Financial Situation January 16, 2008
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