Suggestions for personal money tracking software?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to read this.

Straight to the point: I am accustomed to being paid weekly, but my new job pays monthly. So I need to keep track of my money and keep myself on-budget.

In order to do this, I've been looking at a number of different programs that are available for personal accounting. The problem is that I cannot find something decent. Most of the programs that I've tried are more business-oriented and have loads of great features like managing invoices, barcode reading, stock and inventory management - all stuff that is useless to me.

I've tried a fair number of programs including - GnuCash, Mirjz, GFP, Microsoft Office Accounting Professional, Binarema and a bunch of others that I've found on places like sourceforge.

Basically, I just want to keep track of where my money is going and what I have left. I've knocked together a basic spreadsheet in Excel which does the job (sort of) but obviously isn't the best thing to do. All I need to do is be able to put in how much I have and what expenses I have and for the program to tell me what I've spent and where. If it has other features such as being able to have reminders of upcoming bills or make reports by month then great - but not essential.

I've played with the trial version of Quicken Personal and it's almost what I want - I'm just looking for something that will do a cut-down version of that without having to fork out a big wad of cash.

Any suggestions?

[Wadefade]

Simple is best.

https://www.pearbudget.com/

[Rkolter]

I've tracked businesses, all the cookouts, and our personal finances in Excel - there are a lot of things you can do with excel spreadsheets that go beyond "basic". My spreadsheet of our personal finances tracks all our bills, when they're due, when they will next be due, average cost on the bill (good for budgeting electrical for example) and sorts which bills need to be paid on each paycheck.

If you must buy a package, Quicken Personal, the one you tried, is the one I'd suggest. You can get it cheaper at a college bookstore.

[Ewomack]

Windows used to come with a free version of MS Money. I used that for years and it worked great. But I wouldn't pay extra for it. If you don't have that program (or don't run Windows) look for share/freeware personal finance programs. I'm sure bajillions exist out there.

[Dr Neo Lao]

There are bajillions - it's a matter of finding the one that's right for the needs.

I'm liking Quicken so far, there's just a few little things I'm trying to work out how to use. But I think I was asking the wrong question - I want personal budgeting software, not business accounting software.

Thanks for the info chaps.

[Prettydragoon]

I was going to suggest http://www.wheresgeorge.com/ but I guess that isn't what you meant, so I won't.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Well, that is about tracking money... I see how people could have a lot of fun with a site like that.

I'm not liking Quicken's annoying habit of demanding an internet connection every few days. I'm using the trial version and it's screaming about registration. I need this software for a stand-alone computer so if it keeps this up I'm not buying the full version.