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Resolved Question

Income and Expense tracking software

Jun 2, 2013 8:29AM PDT

Hello,

I'm a busy college student and although I have a part-time job on campus and get a steady income of around $500 a month, when I check for my bank balance every now and then, there's very little money left at any time. In my mind I have this idea that because I'm having a steady income I should have a build up of some money around a few thousand dollars in a few months but WHERE IS ALL MY MONEY GOING?!! I'm pretty sure my bank account is not hacked by someone in Ukraine or something.

The truth is that I'm an online shopaholic and I shop for little things every now and then thinking that I'm gonna get $250 every 2 weeks...there's still going to be plenty of money left even if I buy this nice baseball cap that's just $25 on ebay.

When I get my biweekly pay I end up squandering all that money in less than a week. It's just plain irresponsible of me to do so much online shopping but it's so easy to do it because you never see the money coming or going BUT you end up getting nice packages in the mail (I'm known around the campus to get like at least 4 or 5 packages a week). It's very addictive. I'm hoping that if I have some assistance in managing my money I'll do better.

Now, getting to why I'm making this post, I need software where I can factor in all my recurring income and then enter my planned expenses in it so that I know how much money will be left in my bank when I end up making that purchase. I'm guessing that if I have that long-term vision of how much savings I'll make if I don't buy that sweet strap for my DSLR, it'll make me think twice before buying it.

Basically, I want better resolution of what money I'm making, what money is being spent and how much money will be in my bank at any given date if I keep up with what I'm doing and other such neat analytics on my expenditure.

So, is there such a software for PC that can help me with my needs?

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

ragavpayne has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Income and Expense tracking software
Jun 9, 2013 10:55PM PDT

GnuCash is good, and free. For an easier, but totally comprehensive,free, program, I'd like to suggest "Money Manager EX". Been using it for many, many years. Prior to MMEx, I had used MS Money, Quicken, GnuCash, and a few others. "Try it, you'll like it."

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MMEX is what I was looking for!!!!
Jun 10, 2013 1:47AM PDT

Hello tosim00,

Thanks a lot for your suggestion of MMEX. I just started using it and it's EXACTLY what I was looking for!

I could use MS Excel or something but there's no way of getting reports or manage recurring expenses or anything like that. But MMEX does the trick.

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Answer
Re: tracking income and expenses
Jun 5, 2013 3:40AM PDT

I'd use a spreadsheet. LibreOffice is free, MS Office Home and Student isn't. But maybe a shopaholic abhors free stuff?

Kees

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Alternatives
Jun 8, 2013 4:28AM PDT

OpenOffice is also free and works quite well.

I've been using spreadsheets to track my income/expenses - and even prepare my taxes - for about 15 years.

Something else to try is get a check register from your bank (should be free). Use it to post all income and expenditures. I also use this method as a cross-check. The check number column can be used to show the type of transaction: ATM for deposits/cash withdrawals, DBT for debit, etc. Since you seem to do a lot of online shopping, keep the register by your computer so you can make the entries right along with the purchase.

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Answer
GNUCash
Jun 7, 2013 5:18PM PDT

You could try chopping up your credit card!

More practically, you might want to take a look at GNUCash - it's open source for Windows, Linux and MacOS under the GNU license. You'll like the price - free - and it is a full accounting package that may take a bit of setting up but should tell you where your funds are going. No guarantees that you will like the answer though!