How to keep track of household expenses? I am having a hard time keeping track of all the household expenses. Month after month it appears as if we are not spending on any major items, but there is no savings left. I am trying to write down my expenses to see where I am spending my money, but it is hard to get a full picture with those individual expenses. I am sure others have better control that I do. Can you please share your tactics? Varshini
Excel sheet Hi Varshini, I agree it's sometimes difficult to keep records of expenses, hence I always make sure I have every single receipt of every expense that's made either by me or my hubby. Also, the credit card statement gives account of every transaction, so that helps me cross-check too. I record cash expenses on a little sheet of paper whenever it happens so I can get back home and take care of it. By taking care, I actually mean feeding each of the expenses into an excel sheet that I have prepared for the purpose of keeping accounts. There are sheets corresponding to every month, the budget for every month and salary, deposit and savings too. So in the same excel file, I record earning, spending and savings too. I'd be glad to send you a copy if you will. -Shalini
Help me Please Hello Shalini, I will thanks to you if u send me a copy of you record which can help me to save money. Because i have also the same problem, I could not save money with my three kids. Nisha.
easy to use we use microsoft money software. it is very useful. shal's excel sheet also do a lot of work..!
My excel sheet for expenses Hi Nisha, Attached herewith is the sheet that I created right after marriage to record expenses. Well, you may find it a little descriptive and sometimes confusing, but I have been using this sheet and it gives me a clear idea of how much we are spending in each of the categories and hence helps me a great deal in fixing a budget and allocating adequate amts for the categories in the coming months. The sheets start from june'05, bcz that's when i got married and came here, it goes all the way upto may'06(well, that's the financial year I use for records!). The last two sheets contain the budget, wherein after a careful analysis for first two months(with no budget), I came to clear understanding as to how much I should allocate to each category and hence made a budget for say, grocery per month, entertainment per month, etc and at the far end, you would see something called annual budgeted expense. So even if we splurge one month, we sure can curtail in another so as to aim and achieve the annual budget and not exceed it radically!!! The last sheet is for salaries and deposits where I record any salary or deposit to the savings account and also record the savings made along with the monthly expenses(taken straight from the corresponding monthly sheets) and thus arrive at a net savings so I know how much we saved during a month, and the year. Honestly, we did go crazy most months(esp restaurants, clothing, etc), but it sure does keep you on your toes most times! I might have missed explanation of some areas, do let me know if you have doubts and I shall be glad to help u with the same. Just to let you know, the calculations and formulae are already fed in there, so you neednt worry about additions, subtractions etc Love Shalini p.s. I live in the US, hence certain columns would have names of stores we normally go to. You are welcome to change them to whatever stores you often visit. Also, I always add in a comment to most entries so as to have a clearer idea(w.r.t store name, type of expense, etc) abt the expenses. You do that by right clicking the mouse and choosing 'add a comment'.
That is nice.. We too use excel sheets to maintain the monthly expenses which always write down the expenses, BUT not on the same sheets. For each & every month, the sheet will differ. We will separate the expenses in a different category like conveyance, grocery, diary, veg/fruits, our names separately, miscellaneous etc. Other than this, the standard monthly expenses will come at the bottom like school fee, classes fee, gas/electricity etc. And, it will automatically total whenever we enter an amount. In this way, you can take the file out and check the differences every month or even year. Rgds.
Quicken We use an accounting software called Quicken. It's easy to maintain expenses made in different categories (as mentioned by Ami). It gives a download to excel, user friendly reports for comparison, you can also report out category wise, so that we can review it and try reducing expenses in the category that we exceed a particular month. Cheers, Kanmani
Hi varshini, I joined only today in Indusladies.......glad to meet you here....... I've got a vast experience in managing money at home......right from my childhood........ There is no big tactics........... Every month you have to spend on all the below items without fail........ say if you are two in your family...........the cost would be the following in a metro like Chennai Milk........................................400 Provision................................1000 House rent(if you are in a rented two bedroom flat)...................anywhere between 6000 -7500 Telephone bill........................min 600 - 1500 Cell phones.............................min 500 -1000 per person at home Electricity bill.........................700-1500 (including A/c) Servant maid............................400-700 Transportation ........................2500-3500 (for two bikes) House hold expenses(like vegetable, eatables, etc)..............3000 These are my budget...........check out yours...........then you will know where you are exceeding........... Maintain a diary, where you can have a common flow for all the 12 months.........and at the end of the year, you will know where you are going wrong hope this is helpful to you............. bye:wave preethi
To keep track for household expenses Hi, I am srividyaram first let me suggest you one thing if you are buying things always from super market means pls try this idea which follows: Every month first week you put one list of grocery, soaps, cosmetics etc and then go to super market and buy only the things you have listed. If possible make the list which will be suffiecient for one month. After that there wont be much of shopping of bulk items. Same like that buy vegetables and fruits weekly ones. This will save you the time as well as money. After these two main shopping if you need to buy any things pls don't go to super market try to buy from near by shops. Because if you go to super market for 2 or 3 essential things you will buy 9 or 10 un wanted things which wil tempt and attract you by their display. After trying this you will find the differnce in your expence and also write down all the expences everyday even if it is very minimum amount. Then weekly once all members sit together and discuss about the expences this will help and realise everybody in the family to control the expenses. All the best for your wealthy life. Srividyaram
monthly budget Hi, Mine is somewhat similar to what Srividya said. Most probably in the last week of the month or in the first week of the month I go for the provisions from the supermarket. Then once a fortnight , vegetables like potatoes, onions ,sambar onions .tomatoes green and ripe mixed, like that. Then a daily allowance of a little amount like Rs.30/-50/ , I used to have as my budget. Sometimes we maynot need it/ or we may have some remaining. . On those days, it goes into a different purse which I keep for my emergency expenses sake . So during that time I need not run to the bank for extra money. Try this out. You may like it. Latha :wave