My husband set me up on MS Money. I spent most of this evening assigning categories to my entries. As old school as I am--you know, paper check register, manual recording of items--I can see the benefit in using a debit card or credit card for all purchases when using this program. Hopefully, with the February review I'll have good data. Right now in MS Money it looks like I overspent in January--there's a negative balance. I spent a lot, but I didn't overspend, and I paid cash for all of my purchases.
As you can see from the side bar, I reduced my credit card balance to $10,805. In January I paid $450 towards the balance. I'm starting to get that impatient feeling. I've been trying to figure out if I can double that in February. I'm not sure it's totally realistic.
Finally, I love interest income! My emergency fund has increased to $1,018.87. I owe it all to compounding.
Monday, February 4, 2008
How am I doing--January 2008
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4 comments:
Good luck with using MS Money. I've used Quicken to track all of my spending since I was about 17 years old so it's a well ingrained habit and I forget that most people probably don't track every penny they spend every day. :)
Give it some time, but I think you'll find it to be very helpful.
I have used MS Money for a long time and really like it. I use Excel for some at a glance thing and tracking my snowball and baby steps.
Anytime you chip away and not add to the pile, pat yourself on the back, then jump in to improve.
Good job!
Sounds like you had a successful January! Cash for all your purchases, extra towards your credit card and an increasing emergency fund!
I've never used any software for my personal finances. For me, right now, an Excel spreadsheet is working great. I hope you like it!
Hope this new method works well for you :-)
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