June 27, 2008

• Frugal Friday

  

  
  

   

  
  

  My frugal tip for the day is to keep a close (possibly daily) account of what you are spending. Don’t wait for weeks or until the end of the month to see whether or not you’ve gone over your budget.

  
  

  I have our checkbook on Quick Books. We purchased this program for our business years ago but I also use it for my personal checking account. It makes balancing your checkbook super easy. Every check I write I post into this program and assign it a category. This program allows me to run reports on the different categories. For instance, if I want to check what I’ve spent this month on groceries I can make a report and I’ll know exactly what I’ve spent. I can even go back and compare it to what I spent last year alone. You can also set up a budget for each category and run reports to see if you are staying within the budget. There is also a graph report shaped like a pie which shows a very clear picture of where all your money goes.

  
  

  I bought the business program and it was expensive (a couple hundred dollars) but I believe Quicken is for personal use and is less costly. I think it’s well worth it’s weight in gold! (Is gold still valuable? *S*) I believe most computers also offer money programs. Just check to see if they run reports on your spending.

  
  

  I find that if I don’t keep a close, weekly watch on my spending I tend to go over my budget.

  
  

  And that’s my tip for the day!

  
  

  You can find more frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood.

  • 9:42 am
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