Effective economic administration is crucial for stability. Share a tool or method you use to keep your finances in check.
24 thoughts on “What’s a method or tool you use to manage personal finances effectively?”
Auto draft bills. Adding bill due dates in a calendar app with a reminder set for 2 days prior and day of. **PAYING OFF CREDIT CARDS TO NOT CARRY DEBT.** Saving receipts as a visual/physical reminder of what I spend and keeping them in categorized envelopes. Budgeting app, I use Every Dollar. For toiletries/selfcare/grooming items, I stopped buying items unless I run out.
For non necessities, I create a list of things I want, reevaluate in a few days to see if I still want it… for example… I could use a new makeup bag, mine is old and almost in shambles… but it isn’t broken YET.
for me i use money lover as a budget app. its basically a tool that helps you manage expenses and know how much comes in and comes out of your accounts. Helped me alot in fixing my spreadsheets for budget.
i use google docs to keep track of my bills and income.
you can put it in in a way that you can see the first week of the year how much money you will have in the last week if you have regular income and expenses.
To start I decided only to keep track of expenses over €50. That limits the amount of transactions to keep track of drastically. I tracked these expenses one full year to calculate how much money I should save monthly for larger expenses. I also categorized each expense in clothes, vacation, rent, car etc.
I set aside this monthly amount right after my paycheck on a savings account.
I keep track of this in a long excel list, which I update every 2 months. I basically go through my expenses manually and list them in the sheet. When I am done, I transfer the money back from my savings account.
Now I always have enough money for any larger expenses and very good insight in my finances!
Look at previous months’ spending, average out recurring bills, make a budget, stick to said budget, and revisit every quarter to see where any adjustments need to be made. I don’t really use apps aside from the Numbers app and our bank app. Always have money set aside for savings and investments.
Using the 50/30/20 (needs, must/savings, wants) rule. All excess from percentage of needs and wants goes to savings. Then I use Wallet app by BudgetBakers to track my budget.
I have a desk and a paper calendar. I spend about 15 minutes a month writing reminders on it.
Bills are due on the 25th of every month (regardless of their due date)
I basically sit down and pay all my bills on the 25th and cross them off. On the first day of the new month I spend that 15 minutes writing out my schedule for the month.
When you are first getting started make the minimum payments on any debts and pay your bills for the first few months (say 5-6) to get a handle on your living expenses. At the end of that time you’ll get a roundabout idea of how much money you can put into savings or into paying of debt.
And in that 5-6 month period write down anything you buy. Any expenses. Anything. Every bill every pack of gum. The boomers are correct about those coffees and avocado toasts. $5 here and there can easily exceed $500 a month. And it you have it to spend that’s fine. But you absolutely need to track and confirm if you have the money to spend.
I just started using Monarch Money a couple of weeks ago and set up all my recurring payments with tags. Anything without a tag gets “flagged for review” and shows in a queue as soon as I log in so I can check my discretionary spending. They also have a budgeting tool which I haven’t set up fully as yet.
I added a few more categories for discretionary spending to give me a better idea of what I’m spending on outside of my actual needs and I can see it visualized in a graph. That really helps drive things home when I see I’m spending almost as much eating out as I am at home even though I eat home food most days
I also have all my bills on auto pay including remittance of property taxes on a monthly basis so I don’t get hit with a huge bill each quarter. If there’s any extra at the end of the year I just reduce my next payment(s) accordingly.
The most helpful method aside from all of this is just keeping a mental tab, I have $XXXXX coming in each month and my household expenses (including cars, credit cards, etc.) come up to approx. $XXXX so on average I should be able to save $XXXX each month.
Keep track of your starting balance at the beginning of each month and the ending balance on your 2nd pay period of each month (after your major bill payments are made, ex: if I get paid on a Friday but my mortgage payment comes out the following Tues/Wed then I take stock the next Friday) to get a general idea of how you’re doing.
If you’re way off the mark, start looking into your purchase history a little deeper and budget + change spending habits accordingly.
There’s this great app called Spendee where you put all your expenses and can categorize them (food, drinks, sports, bills, etc). You can also add monthly fixed expenses to be counted automatically each month (Spotify for example).
Helps you keep track of where and how much you spend, and how much is left of your budget. Also got some charts to visualize everything.
Keep a budget and dates of my bills in a Notepad app, track every single dollar I spend in a Money Manager app. I reconcile it every 2-3 days to ensure it’s 1:1 with my bank account. All of this takes me perhaps 5 accumulated minutes per week
Auto draft bills. Adding bill due dates in a calendar app with a reminder set for 2 days prior and day of. **PAYING OFF CREDIT CARDS TO NOT CARRY DEBT.** Saving receipts as a visual/physical reminder of what I spend and keeping them in categorized envelopes. Budgeting app, I use Every Dollar. For toiletries/selfcare/grooming items, I stopped buying items unless I run out.
For non necessities, I create a list of things I want, reevaluate in a few days to see if I still want it… for example… I could use a new makeup bag, mine is old and almost in shambles… but it isn’t broken YET.
for me i use money lover as a budget app. its basically a tool that helps you manage expenses and know how much comes in and comes out of your accounts. Helped me alot in fixing my spreadsheets for budget.
chatgpt
i use google docs to keep track of my bills and income.
you can put it in in a way that you can see the first week of the year how much money you will have in the last week if you have regular income and expenses.
Firefly3
Microsoft money
I went pretty nerd last year but it worked.
To start I decided only to keep track of expenses over €50. That limits the amount of transactions to keep track of drastically. I tracked these expenses one full year to calculate how much money I should save monthly for larger expenses. I also categorized each expense in clothes, vacation, rent, car etc.
I set aside this monthly amount right after my paycheck on a savings account.
I keep track of this in a long excel list, which I update every 2 months. I basically go through my expenses manually and list them in the sheet. When I am done, I transfer the money back from my savings account.
Now I always have enough money for any larger expenses and very good insight in my finances!
Wife tool
I generally use money for my finances…..
Look at previous months’ spending, average out recurring bills, make a budget, stick to said budget, and revisit every quarter to see where any adjustments need to be made. I don’t really use apps aside from the Numbers app and our bank app. Always have money set aside for savings and investments.
YNAB
Don’t let my wife near the accounts. I handle all the money and she’s fine with it. She will spend every dime we have if she could
Copilot
Using the 50/30/20 (needs, must/savings, wants) rule. All excess from percentage of needs and wants goes to savings. Then I use Wallet app by BudgetBakers to track my budget.
I have a desk and a paper calendar. I spend about 15 minutes a month writing reminders on it.
Bills are due on the 25th of every month (regardless of their due date)
I basically sit down and pay all my bills on the 25th and cross them off. On the first day of the new month I spend that 15 minutes writing out my schedule for the month.
When you are first getting started make the minimum payments on any debts and pay your bills for the first few months (say 5-6) to get a handle on your living expenses. At the end of that time you’ll get a roundabout idea of how much money you can put into savings or into paying of debt.
And in that 5-6 month period write down anything you buy. Any expenses. Anything. Every bill every pack of gum. The boomers are correct about those coffees and avocado toasts. $5 here and there can easily exceed $500 a month. And it you have it to spend that’s fine. But you absolutely need to track and confirm if you have the money to spend.
Spend less than income. Pay off credit card every month.
I just started using Monarch Money a couple of weeks ago and set up all my recurring payments with tags. Anything without a tag gets “flagged for review” and shows in a queue as soon as I log in so I can check my discretionary spending. They also have a budgeting tool which I haven’t set up fully as yet.
I added a few more categories for discretionary spending to give me a better idea of what I’m spending on outside of my actual needs and I can see it visualized in a graph. That really helps drive things home when I see I’m spending almost as much eating out as I am at home even though I eat home food most days
I also have all my bills on auto pay including remittance of property taxes on a monthly basis so I don’t get hit with a huge bill each quarter. If there’s any extra at the end of the year I just reduce my next payment(s) accordingly.
The most helpful method aside from all of this is just keeping a mental tab, I have $XXXXX coming in each month and my household expenses (including cars, credit cards, etc.) come up to approx. $XXXX so on average I should be able to save $XXXX each month.
Keep track of your starting balance at the beginning of each month and the ending balance on your 2nd pay period of each month (after your major bill payments are made, ex: if I get paid on a Friday but my mortgage payment comes out the following Tues/Wed then I take stock the next Friday) to get a general idea of how you’re doing.
If you’re way off the mark, start looking into your purchase history a little deeper and budget + change spending habits accordingly.
There’s this great app called Spendee where you put all your expenses and can categorize them (food, drinks, sports, bills, etc). You can also add monthly fixed expenses to be counted automatically each month (Spotify for example).
Helps you keep track of where and how much you spend, and how much is left of your budget. Also got some charts to visualize everything.
Money Dance program on computer
Money Dance program on computer
Hide card. Tell self off for spending unnecessarily.
Keep a budget and dates of my bills in a Notepad app, track every single dollar I spend in a Money Manager app. I reconcile it every 2-3 days to ensure it’s 1:1 with my bank account. All of this takes me perhaps 5 accumulated minutes per week
A calculator as a tool. Methods usually involve adding or subtraction.
Google sheets and my 10-key calc. Can access budget from work or home, pay CC’s off in full every month…