Managing Money Programs

Pia · 27-01-2006, 13:52

Does anyone know of any programs that help to manage your money on a regular basis, without being too complicated.

I have Microsoft Money, but it seems way too complex and that puts me off using it.
Of course, i don't really want to pay for one, and it does seems a shame to have MS Money on my computer and not using it, but i wondered if anyone knew of any alternatives. Preferably free ones?
Thanks, Pia

27-01-2006, 14:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pia

Does anyone know of any programs that help to manage your money on a regular basis, without being too complicated.

I use Quicken (an ancient copy that still fits on a floppy!) which is quick and easy to use. I don't know what the current version is like, though. From Intuit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pia

I have Microsoft Money

I had a look at that once - it's atrocious.

It will be interesting if anyone does know of a decent freeware package, though.

Ot trawl through this list from Google.

Aragorn · 27-01-2006, 14:40

Excel spreadsheet? Works for me!

Pia · 27-01-2006, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

I use Quicken (an ancient copy that still fits on a floppy!) which is quick and easy to use. I don't know what the current version is like, though. From Intuit.

Bit pricey though innit?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Excel spreadsheet? Works for me!

I was kinda wanting one to do it all for me!

Not asking too much am i, a free program to sort my life out?!

27-01-2006, 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pia

Bit pricey though innit?!

You mean a bit pricey, intuit?

But my copy was 2nd hand, so not nearly as pricey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pia

Not asking too much am i, a free program to sort my life out?!

May be not. Check this list.

Pia · 28-01-2006, 00:32

Thanks SWW, some goodies on freebyte , and i found one that i've installed called AceMoney Lite so i'll check that out! Another one that looked simple and to the point was Easy Cash Manager.

Pia · 28-01-2006, 10:40

Had a little play with Ace Money Lite, all good so far, recommend it

LSainsbury · 28-01-2006, 11:02

I mainly use an Excel Spreadsheet these days - easy to use - and highly configurable! There are some "templates" on the web, but I made my own!

Edit - try some of these from Microsoft!

---------- Post added at 11:02 ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pia

Thanks SWW, some goodies on freebyte , and i found one that i've installed called AceMoney Lite so i'll check that out! Another one that looked simple and to the point was Easy Cash Manager.

Just looked at Ace - think that only supports US banks?

ian@huth · 28-01-2006, 12:02

Managing money is more a state of mind and self discipline than a software programme. I use a simple Excel spreadsheet which has all my direct debits listed across the top together with my budget allowance for things like shopping, holidays, petrol, etc and columns for incomings (salary or whatever). Going down the sheet I have it split into weeks. The money goes into my current account and each week I transfer money into my various websaver accounts so that I earn interest on the cash. I have several websaver accounts for different purposes such as holidays, presents, household replacements, rainy day, etc. I can see at a glance how much I expect to be going into the account each week and what the weeks outgoings may be. I change the cell colour when income is received or payments are made so that I have a very quick update on the state of our finances.

Both my wife and I used to have seperate current accounts (both joint) with incomings going into one and an immediate transfer of the coming months direct debit outgoings from that into the other account. This meant there was always money available to meet the direct debits. Nowadays we only have the one current account as we are able to manage our money much better than in our early days.

Pia · 28-01-2006, 12:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsainsbury

Just looked at Ace - think that only supports US banks?

It is American, but you can change the currency to whatever you want. I'm with Barclays which is listed, but i'm not transferring data from there anyway just putting it all in myself it's a lot simpler that way and helps me to figure out my budget!

Also just checked out my monthly expenditure with the pie chart and i spend a lot more on debts than bills