Budget Freak

For the past 6 months, I had been using Money Manager Ex to keep track of my finances. It had worked out pretty well for keeping track of my day to day expenses, but the more I used it, the more it was lacking. Not to say that it’s a bad program, but I wanted to keep track of more than the program would allow. I had tried using a demo version of Microsoft Money, but ultimately, I didn’t want to have to pay for the software.

Enter GnuCash. A free, open-source financial program, that has just become available for windows (before it was Linux only). GnuCash offers a much more robust program, forcing you to use double-entry accounting (ie. for each transaction, you need a balancing credit and debit), can track investments and fixed assets, and has much better method of splitting transactions. The reporting functionality is also much better, and is customizable.

One of the biggest differences, is I’ll be able to track taxes and pre-tax deductions. Before, when I got a paycheck, I would only input my Net Income, or after tax and deduction money. For example, if I had a $1,000 gross paycheck, I might only enter $600 income, thus losing my tax, health insurance, and 401k deductions. Now, I can record my gross income, as well as all the taxes and deductions. I can now also track my car loan better. I can now not only keep track of payments, but also expense the interest I’m being charged. If nothing else, I’ll be able to actually see how much money the loan is costing me.

I’ve spent a few hours over the last week migrating the past 6 months worth of transactions over, and I’m now completely switched. As a result, all my monthly expense totals for the past 6 months have changed. One of these days I’ll go back and make a note of the changes, but for now, just know that June’s expense report will look a little different. Anywho, I’ll keep you updated on how the software is working, but my so far, it’s working great.

I just got back from grocery shopping. I just realized it had been over a month since my last major shopping trip (I made two small trips in between). It would be great if I could keep up this once a month grocery shopping trend. One trip to stock up for the month, then one or two quick trips during the month to pickup milk or break (the stuff that goes bad quickly), or if there are any amazing sales I can’t pass up. I think I’ll try and do that for now on.

There was some great sales on meat today, so I bought four pounds each of ground beef and chicken. I split up the packages into meal sized portions, clearly label the contents, put today’s date, and then put them in the freezer until they’re ready to be used.

Now I can stock up on a good deal, and I don’t have to worry about them going bad before I get a chance to use them.

My favorite part of the shopping trip is waiting for the checker to ring up all my items before handing over my club card and coupons. Today, before discounts, the total was $201.80. Once she scanned my club card, it went down to $167.12, and then after coupons, I saved another $21.60. Total bill for today’s groceries was $144.62. That’s a little high, but I really stocked up. I’ll probably only have to take one more shopping trip for the rest of the month, and spend no more than $30. Hooray coupons!

I’ve been wondering for years how long you need to hang on to financial records, such as receipts, credit card statements and bank statements. I literally have a box full of restaurant, grocery store, gas station, and ATM receipts that date back to the late 90’s. Not to mention a file cabinet packed with old bank and credit card statements. Finally, I’ve found an anwser! Real Simple has a list to help you decide which financial records to keep.

The highlights:

• After a Month: ATM receipts, credit card receipts, and small non-warranty purchases
• After a Year: Monthly credit card and bank statements, paycheck stubs (I have stubs from 1998!), phone/utility bills
• After Seven Years: W2’s and 1099 forms
• Keep Forever: Annual Tax Returns, major purchase receipts, home improvement records

Looks like I’ll be having a shredding party this weekend!