Any tips on how to figure a budget and not under budget yourself? Jun 26, 2009 05:26 pm
This post is about: Quicken Online
Quicken Online doesn't have a full on budgeting tool, but if you're only doing it semi-casually, it's actually pretty neat. I built mine this way:
1) Figure out how much money you make
2) Next put down all your expenses that recur every month, things like mortgage, rent, insurance payments, utilities, phones, etc.
3) Look at historical spending and see how much you've been spending on the non-recurring things
I use Quicken Online's budgeting feature for everything that falls in category 3. Things that recur, I can't really do much about (except get rid of them altogether in some cases), but for me, their essentially non-negotiable. Things that aren't are my allowance (play money), wife's allowance, kids allowance, gasoline, and groceries (some groceries are obviously non-negotiable, but it's something that can be controlled month-to-month, so it's worth budgeting for.
This approach works for me, because it's pretty simple, which means it's not overwhelming to set up in the first place, and it's not difficult to stick to.
I agree. When I first tried QOL, I hated it. When I came back it made more sense. Think simple. Which is hard to do if you're a long times user of any full blown accounting app. I agree with you. I used the budgets for what I call spending. Bills and monthly recurring items are pretty stable. It's the spending that needs watched. It works well for that.
