Wondering if anyone has a financial diary? I was thinking about getting a diary now that they are all cheap, just to record all of our finances in, you know write down on the days when we get money, how much, what the budget is (I could glue this in), I could also record how much on spend each day and keep a record of what bills I have paid and put their recipts in their too. That way if someone says I haven't paid I can go to it immediately?

Before I spend the money and went to the time to set up was wondering if anyone had anything similar and how you did it.

DH is now getting interested in the budget and our expenses so I thought this would be a good way to get him to get more interested, he is finding it easier to understand why I say 'no' now since I have been including him in planning how we going to spend the next lot of wages.

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"You have to live through the rain before you experience the rainbow"

Great idea! I set mine up in google documents. It's free and super easy to use. I set up a budget where we write down everything we spend, and another spreadsheet that shows all of our automatic payments, etc. It makes me feel so organized and on top of things.

I set up the budget with a list of things across and then the months down.

Across is: Housing / Food / Car / Clothing / Entertainment (including books) / Kids / Clothing / Gifts / Charity / Savings & Investments / Gifts

Down are the months .. then I can get totals to the write (which automatically add themselves) to the right to total for the months and totals down to total for the category.

I just have one spot for each, eg In Jan if my food is at $365.72 and I spend $23 at the grocery, I just use a calculator to add the two amounts and replace $365,72 with $388.72.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you might have about it.

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I have a spreadsheet set up very similar to that to work out the budget and track the spending but I can't work out how to put a date to what I have paid and I really want to track our money to the dollar so I can see where we spending it, also I want to keep the reciepts etc all in one location instead of searching through the filing cabinet (for warranty needs etc). I was thinking a small diary on the kitchen bench so everyone can write what they spend and then I can transfer that to the laptop create a graph of expenditure... Gosh Darn It!!! Sounds like I'm still at work I suppose I gotta exercise my brain someway... lol.. and if it saves me a dollar...

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"You have to live through the rain before you experience the rainbow"

That's great! I guess Quicken is sort of our money diary. Dh tracks everything in this program so we have all our historical information documented. It also lets us track our spending and we can use it to create a net worth statement. No matter how you track your finances, the most important thing is simply doing it at all!

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Do Quicken do a personal program too? I used Microsoft money once but didnt' find it very user friendly.

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"You have to live through the rain before you experience the rainbow"

What I bought was:
1~ 3-ring binder (one that would last and that was at least 2in.)

enough loose leaf paper to last at least the year (I buy it when the back to school sale is on and don't buy again until it rolls around again)

One package of the the colored plastic dividerswith the tabs on the edge and pockets

a pecil case that has holes so you can put it in the binder

What I do Is:
1~ fill the pecil case with pencils, pens of different colors, highlighters, a calculator... and anything else I might need to budget or pay bills, like stamps, address labels and so on.

2~ Decide what I want to use the dividers for.


I have one section for the monthly budget... and I budget through the year:
On the top of each page I write the month and how much I have in savings in One color.
Then I write all the bills I know I will have in the first few lines, in two colums, in another color... for me it is black.
Under that I write all the paydays of that month across a line in blue ( I think the different colors help me not get bored and find things easier). Under each payday I write what bill I will pay in black ink... and how much I will pay on it in pencil (just incase I need to make changes.
Under each payday section I write the words:cash, checking, savings in green. And again I write the amounts that I budgeted in pencil in case I need to make changes or the paycheck amount is different that what I expected.
IN THE FOLDER PART I PUT ALL THE BILLS THAT CAME IN.

I have one section that I have as house payments:
I just write how much I paid each month, how much extra on principle, any extra that I put in escrow and so forth. Just so I know about where we are with our loan between statements.
IN THE FOLDER I PUT THE COUPON BOOK AND ALL THE ENVELOPES THAT I MADE OUT FOR THE BILLS AND THE BREAKDOWN OF WHERE OUR PAYMENTS GO... HOW MUCH ON INTREST AND SUCH.

I have one section for savings account info.:
I keep a list of which account has what in it and I keep it up to date. Using a different page for each account.

I have one section for our credit cards:
I have one page for each card and keep the APR and all that information on it. I also list how much we have spent on the card and keep that up to date
I also have a page with the total amount of credit card debt that we have.

I have a section for how much we spen each month and one page for the total for the year:
On things like clothes, fast food, water bill, etc.

For me, I like to be able to see where we are right away with out having to turn on the computer and put everything in it. Once you have it all set up it really is easy to use the way I do it. Everyone has their own way of doing things you just have to find what works for you.