In fact, I created a “fudge” category in my budget to account for the $50 or so that I was guaranteed to be off every month. Kind of like the government. A mistake is made so often, a whole new category is setup and managed

Once automatic downloading became a main feature (software), my error rate went down to, oh, zero along with my frustration level. The further the humans are away from the computer, the better!

Thanks for the great post!

-Jerret

All I can say is that until their “Cash Flow” tab came along, I found Quicken’s budgeting feature to be just this side of worthless. And with the Cash Flow desktop, it’s still not a true budget. It simply shows whether more is coming in than is going out (but that’s all my household really needs these days).

It is quite likely that for you to get any sort of budgeting process down, you’ll have to turn to Excel … and either look at one of my spreadsheets or build your own. You know what you want it to track, and Quicken’s budgeting features (as mentioned) suck wind. It’s just a matter of making XL do what you want … and being patient enough to enter your spending data both into your spreadsheet and into Quicken (for normal bank-account tracking and such).

I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t been able to figure out if there is way to set multiple “spending planners/budgets” based on the ACCOUNT and not simply on the Quicken file.

If this can be done in Quicken, I’m not aware of the way to make it happen.

My wife and I have been married for close to a year. I’ve been an avid Quicken user for my PERSONAL finances for a very long time (at least the basic use of the register and some budgeting)

We recently opened a joint checking account and we are now sharing much of the same savings goals as well. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to figure out the VERY BEST way to manage her money/budget, my money/budget and OUR money/budget.

On the one hand, it seemed like a good idea to put ALL of our accounts in one Quicken file since I “do the money” in our household and it made tracking transfers between accounts/categories so much easier but then it got extremely difficult to set up any sort of “personal budget” for her when it came to what she spent on clothing etc.

I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t been able to figure out if there is way to set multiple “spending planners/budgets” based on the ACCOUNT and not simply on the Quicken file.

You seem to have a pretty good grasp of managing family finances using Quicken and would LOVE some help in this area!!

Thanks so much!
- Nathan

I see credit cards in a similar way. Some people can’t handle them. They shouldn’t use them. I can handle them.

Should I give up my credit cards just because someone else is allergic to them?

For us, plastic makes tracking our spending very, very easy. Plus it has eliminated the need to constantly log checks, verify balances, and transfer money from one account to another.

I am not one of those “my way or the highway” folks who deems any and all credit-card usage as detrimental. If you can avoid paying interest and fees, and conversely gain convenience, security, and viable “rewards” for using plastic, then knock yourself out.

That’s my stance!