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A friend at work had an issue with the way Quicken did its reporting: Everything was monthly. The budgeting especially. For example, take a twice-annual car insurance premium. He would run a deficit (or surplus) on his budget for five months, then get everything paid off in the sixth month. Having the wide imbalance with the budget and the actual payments was bugging him. I recommended Mvelopes to him, and he seemed to like it. Is there a way to do this in Quicken? Any other software that can handle irregular payments and budgeting gracefully? |
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I don't use Quicken, as I find it overly cumbersome and mostly "clumsy". I know it's great s/w, but it's not for me... I use Squirrel for the Mac, which is cheaper and a lot more user-friendly, IMHO. It's only for the Mac, sorry Wonders users... Oh, and this has a corresponding iPhone app, too. |
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I use GNUCash, which is platform independent and if I remember correctly you can specify the dates for your reports so you can specify your own time periods. I have some tutorials on getting started with GNUCash: |
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I have started using another freebie on the Mac: "Cha-Ching!". It seems really flexible, and only reports based on your criteria -- plus it has an iPhone app to boot (they sync): Cha-Ching for iPhone I'm on the road enough that this is important to me to keep my budgets in line. Yup, there's an app for that. |
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Kmymoney: Linux (Gnome or KDE enviroment). Can be as simple or detailed as you want. |
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http://www.youneedabudget.com has 4 rules to help you get out of debt and living off of last month's income. It is a wonderful tool and one that has thoroughly changed the way my wife and I look at our finances. Rule 1: Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Rule 2: Give every dollar a job. Rule 3: Save for a rainy day. Rule 4: Roll with the punches. By following Rule 1 you will no longer being living on your current paycheck. By following Rule 2 you will be able to account for every dollar in your account, which in turn will make you wiser on your spending, which in turn will help you spend less. By following Rule 3 you will be saving for those days when the car breaks down, when your water heater explodes (exaggerating of course):), and saving for the auto insurance premiums every 6 months. By following Rule 4 you will keep moving forward when you fail. Anyone can start a budget but to continue on when you overspend is where most often people fall short. |
