Monthly expense monitoring tool

**Petunia 100** · 12-07-2012, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by jerryco View Post

Hi all,
I am new to the forum and will appreciate your help.

I feel as my monthly payments are growing due to services I keep on adding (such as : Cable, Netflix , XM radio, Xbox live)

Any suggestion on a tool or web site I can use to monitor my monthly payments and also remind me when payment due?
Any tips on how to reduce payments to service providers (Such as Cable or cell phone )
will be most welcome!

Thanks in advance
Jerry C

Hi Jerry,

There are several methods you might use to monitor spending and/or remind you when payments are due. You may need to try a few before you find the one that really works for you.

A couple of years ago when I was feeling my spending was getting out of control, I started using Mint. I like Mint, and it worked for me, but I have since deleted my account (concerns about privacy). Since then, I am just using my own Excel spreadsheet.

I am finding that using my bank's bill pay feature is quite handy, as I can receive my e-bills on the bill pay site. This makes viewing and storage a snap. I wish every vendor I deal with offered this service.

If I have the option, I favor setting up automatic payments to my rewards credit card. It means fewer bills for me to pay manually, and I earn a few reward points. However, I never do this if there is a fee involved.

I don't have cable, but do have Netflix. I find that for my household, it is more than adequate.

I trimmed my cell bill this past June by two-thirds when I switched from AT & T to Ting. I heard about Ting right here at Saving Advice. I couldn't be more pleased with the service.

http://ting.com

I also have long been in the habit of keeping a "bill book". I use a simple composition notebook, label each page with a month, then list the bills I must pay each month. I highlight off each one as I pay it, so that I know at a glance what has been paid and what hasn't. It is also a convenient place to tuck paper bills as I receive them, so that they don't get misplaced.

**Kircheis** · 12-07-2012, 06:45 PM

I use an app on my iPhone called HomeBudget (it cost me $5). I keep track of all of my expenses and bills using the app. Once you set the recurring bills, it will alert you before the bills is due (1-7 days before depending on how you set it up)

**nalidixic** · 12-07-2012, 06:52 PM

My wife and I keep a note book of our expenses. At the beginning of each month we write out the amounts and due dates of all our payments. This works well for us to keep on track because it's low tech and we both have access to it by just picking up the book.

**Fast_Eddie26** · 12-07-2012, 07:47 PM

I have setup Pear Budget and I'm loving it so far. I recommend you download it and use.

If you wanted to have access all the time, you might be able to load it on the Cloud. I haven't done so, but I am thinking about it.

**thesimplemoneyblog** · 12-08-2012, 09:29 AM

You can try some of the major sites/companies like Mint.com (free), Quicken, Yodlee (free), Personal Capital, etc. All are slightly different, so you might have to test out a few of them to see what works best for you and your lifestyle given that so many of them have different target audiences.

**EarlyRetirementJoy** · 12-08-2012, 09:59 AM

I want to pretty much "ditto" everything Petunia 100 posted. If you really want to get a handle on your monthly bills and monthly spending in general, you absolutely have to track it down to the nitty gritty. I keep a detailed spreadsheet in Google Doc's version of Excel, and track everything else through our bank's online tool.

**GrimJack** · 12-08-2012, 06:07 PM

So, do you recommend buying everything with your debit card to keep track? Or do you take out xx.xx in cash to spend and track receipts? I think that using Mint and buying everything on a debit card would make it a little easier.

**thesimplemoneyblog** · 12-09-2012, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by GrimJack View Post

So, do you recommend buying everything with your debit card to keep track? Or do you take out xx.xx in cash to spend and track receipts? I think that using Mint and buying everything on a debit card would make it a little easier.

Either a debit card or credit card is best. That way, you can easily track the expenses instead of having to manually add items if you mostly used cash or checks.

**jerryco** · 12-10-2012, 07:21 AM

Thanks all for great ideas

I will have to look at the suggestion given .. I will update the forum with the tool I end up using

**Kircheis** · 12-10-2012, 07:24 PM

Good luck! Most of the expense tracking/budgeting apps on the iPhone have a free trial version so that you can test them out to see if you like one enough to buy the full version.

**kaleida** · 12-12-2012, 06:55 PM

Originally posted by jerryco View Post

Hi all,
I am new to the forum and will appreciate your help.

I feel as my monthly payments are growing due to services I keep on adding (such as : Cable, Netflix , XM radio, Xbox live)

Any suggestion on a tool or web site I can use to monitor my monthly payments and also remind me when payment due?
Any tips on how to reduce payments to service providers (Such as Cable or cell phone )
will be most welcome!

Thanks in advance
Jerry C

I think your best option is to set up automatic payments so you don't have to remember. Everything you listed should have an auto-pay option on their website. I have automatic payments set up for all of my small bills (netflix, gym, car insurance, cell phone, etc etc) - plus an automatic payment for the full balance of the credit card every month. I just finished closing a couple of credit cards that didn't have an auto-pay option because they were too much effort for me! I think it's better to automate as much as possible so there's no possibility of forgetting something.

**snafu** · 12-12-2012, 11:15 PM

You also asked about entertainment like cable, Netflix, X-box costs. What do you use nearly daily and what could you live without? We reassess our entertainment twice a year and except for sports & business news hardly watch TV. [DH is nearly in withdrawal without pro hockey]. Since getting a giant sz. TV a few years ago, TV has dumbed down past our tolerance. Honey Boo?

**jerryco** · 06-30-2014, 11:52 AM

As I was not able to find good tool to help me monitor my service providers I created one

- Yes it took some time.

I created the tool to help me keep track of all my monthly payments to service providers as I got tired of keeping track of them elsewhere such as sticky notes, random apps, spreadsheets or the back of my hand

(Cable , Internet, Netflix , Utilities)

I can say it paid off as it saved me great deal of money, Now I thought its time to share it with my community.

Guess the tool needs more work but from my point of view it does the work, I will be happy to get your feedback and make it better.

Tool location - remindMe2Save.com

Hope it helps !

Jerry C

**Patrick_OG** · 07-12-2014, 10:52 PM

I was trying to find an android app that was simple, but most of these personal finance systems are hard to understand. So I made one

I can't post a link, but if you search the Amazon app store for "Easy Money" and look for the big green E you'll find it.

You can also check my profile for my web page link. Its extremely easy to use.

Monthly expense monitoring tool