Money

Ryan and I have been budgeters since the first layoff of 2004.  We used to follow Crown Financial and now more Dave Ramsey.  Basically save so you can pay cash.  When we were having our third kid we had power saved enough to pay cash for our van.  When a car needs to be repaired we have a yearly budget for stuff like that.  We have life insurance and a will so if we die our kids are taken care of but don't get the cash in their hands.

We are not perfect with budgeting.  There are some times when there is stuff we want or need.  Times when you see a great piece of equipment at a garage sale or something falls apart and needs to be fixed.

Why do we budget?  To tell our money where to go.  Otherwise we could easily spend $1000 on food for summer with running around to Michigan and back.

I am a computer nerd and like a program where I can plan.  For years I have been using Excel but I like feed back and also cooler charts, online access and ease of use.

When Dave Ramsey started Everydollar I thought that was it.  I could do it online and have it do what I needed.  Here is my issue, I used to balance the Budge of $42 million dollar projects for DTE.  I wanted to drag and drop lets say a gas charge into the gas category.  I use an Asus tablet computer, it takes 8 seconds to drop it for who knows what reason.  That drives me nuts and with 3 kids running around I get distracted.  Did someone say "Squirrel?"  Also it got messy if you had a deposit in from Paypal or companies who paid me.  It was frustrating.  For a month it wouldn't update from my bank so I lost momentum.  Budgeting isn't fun but the results are.  Also this was a $100 a year service.  I had to pay each year to get frustrated.  Their help is wonderful but the answer is "We are working on that" or "it is in the future."  Maybe this is for a more novice person.

At the start of May I got Quicken.  I found my old logon stuff and bought the program online for $30.  That is it.  I did not read any instructions and I made a budget.  I uploaded from my bank account and have been since but pressing a button and putting in a password.  It even throws my stuff into categories.  Notice I didn't say the right ones but close.  We like simple so food is just groceries and eating out.  It gives us fast and coffee shops.  I know what it is easily and can move it over in less than a second.

I just got it on my phone 5 minutes ago.  I can up date my budget from there.  Thus I could see if we have enough left in the budget for the month to go to a fancy restaurant or Mc. D.  I just updated a transaction as a split and it was easy.  I like easy.

I also like that it tells me all my bank accounts totals and what my credit score is to the left of my budget.

It also sends me emails when I am close to overspending.  I can set up my bills, all 2 of them.  Right now I can see my budget on my phone and say where we are financially.  I am geeked.  This is what I wanted.  It is not perfect but it sure works for me.  Dave I will still use your envelopes but this is what works best for my family.