I know that some of us have a budgeting spreadsheet and/or software (ie Quicken) that we use to track all spending, bills, etc... But, do any of you have a spreadsheet specifically for groceries/household spending? I was thinking of setting up a workbook that lists the amounts spent on Food, Household, and Misc (the junk you didn't mean to grab from the dollar section! ) This way I can see where every little dime is going besides simply "groceries". Is this too anal??

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I don't think it's too anal. How were you thinking of doing it? Listing every item you bought, giving it a category and listing the price? Or just listing the price with the category? I use Quicken, too, and used to put in split categories when I entered my receipts so if I went to the grocery store and bought mostly groceries, but then some toilet paper, I would split it into groceries and household. That got kind of tedious, so I stopped and just listed the whole thing under "groceries". I've thought of knocking out two birds with one stone, so to speak, and entering into a spreadsheet every separate item on my receipt. That way, not only do I know where the money is going, I also have my price book.

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I would use something like Excel. Set up a sread sheet with the store names on top and items as the first colum and then just fill it in. I think there are on-line programs that do a comparison for you. No I don't use a sheet for individual items, I don't have the time. I would use a program like money or quicken. You can have a bill put in split categories at least with money and create categories for all you grocery items but this too is time consuming. What I like about using money is the ability it gives me to forcast my finances and to see where the money went.

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Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

I do this and love it. I had to set one up for DH's business so I decided to set one up for our personal spending as well. It really helps keep us on track with spending especially since his income depends largely on people paying their bills or how fast a house we have flipped sells.

I am a bit anal, so if that answers your question . . . .

At one time, I found what percentage of your income should go for housing (and all that entails -- taxes, insurance, repairs, mortgage, electricity, heat), transportation, food (I separate out eating out but leave it in the food category), supplies, health, clothing, entertainment, personal insurance (this I use for credit cards . . . .), charity, and savings and other. I have lines under these headings for the details, like entertainment paper, magazines, books, boy scouts, shooting, scrapbook, office, TV, Netflix, internet).

I have a line for total monthly income (I keep track of this on a separate list), then total expenses, and then the difference (in black if it's to the good, in RED if it's negative).

Then, I have a separate list titled Specific Spending where I put items in certain categories -- like buying a vacuum cleaner goes under Household Maintenance, gifts and Christmas gifts go under Christmas, I list every date, amount, and restaurant we frequent in a month in the Eating Out category. The dog has a category. And, I list every Misc. item too. Clothing has a list. This is dated and has the amount of each item.

After a while, it becomes very telling . . . . We cut way back on out eating out after I saw what we were spending!

In case your interested, here are the percentages I use:

Housing: 24%
Health: 6%
Clothing: 3%
Food: 14%
Transportation: 17%
Supplies: 3%
Entertainment: 5%
Personal Insurance: 11%
Savings and others: 13%
Charity: 4%

After you get it all set up, it really isn't hard to manage! It helped us live within our means because we could see what was happening to our money and make adjustments.

Mar

I have been using a new software program called Commoncents. It is an envelope budgeting software program. You can set up your budget to be as detailed or simple as you want. You could have a ton of envelopes for each type of product such as vegi's, toiletries, meats, ect. or you could make each envelope general like groceries. It very simple to use.

Let's say you put everything on a credit card. When you enter your expense in that account there is a split transaction button and that button lets you distribute the costs to all your different budget envelopes.

Check it out at Downloads at enDevelopment.com There is a free trial version for 60 days.

Have fun, I Love It!!

Liz

I use a really good free one .. but I need to figure out how to upload it. Let me give it a try.

Shoot, just tried and it said it was an invalid file .. let me put my 'thinking cap on' and figure out what to do.

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

Okay, here is the original site I got it off of (it's free). You can click on budget spreadsheets on the left hand column, save it to your computer and then you can 'tweak it' to include the things you want it to include.
http://www.stowers-innovations.com/R...r-55/Index.htm

I've done a lot of work on mine .. I just wish there was away I could figure out how to upload it.

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

I found a good spreadsheet here.