For the past five years, I’ve been using a template I created in Microsoft Excel to budget my bills. The quick, basic template simply lists my bills, the amounts, and the grand total, and has a place where I can insert my weekly or monthly pay. The formula then deducts and shows what I have left over.
On just about every computer I’ve owned in this time period, I’ve noticed a program called Microsoft Money, but I never bothered to open it. Lo and behold, this program was the answer to all of my budgeting needs. One day recently, I finally decided to open this program on a whim, and the cute music that played was like a lightbulb going up over my head. This program had a place where I could enter my accounts and their balances, enter my bills, and make plans to save. These are the features that I use regularly to keep my finances in order.
Listing Accounts
The first feature of Microsoft Money that was very helpful to me, was that I could list all of my checking, savings, and credit accounts in one place. The program even has a feature where you can download this information from the internet (which I decided not to do, because I am very private and cautious about programs accessing my personal information). Seeing all of my accounts listed in that way put a lot of things into perspective.
Upcoming Bills-Past Due
The next feature that made me smile was the place where I could enter all of my monthly bills, their amounts, and the dates they were due. Now, whenever I open Money, I see what is coming due, what is overdue, and what has been “registered” into my checking account. Putting my bills into this perspective made it easier for me to track what needed to be in my account at any given point in my bill paying month.
Budgeting
Another feature that I find useful is the budgeting tool. The Microsoft Money program allows you to set up a budget where you can enter all of your monthly expenses, including entertainment, food and groceries, and pet care items, into one place to be analyzed. Based on your monthly income, you can then adjust and tweak as necessary to make sure that you stay within your limitations.
Notifications
The final feature that I think is priceless is the notifications that the program gives you when you are either 1) coming to close to the limit on a certain account, or 2) spending outside of your budget. The latter is perfect for my case, because I can finally see what I am overspending on (entertainment, of course). Now I can adjust my habits accordingly.
If you are looking for a simple, easy to use program to budget your finances which is probably already available for free with your new computer package, I definitely recommend that you try Microsoft Money.
Pros
- Readily available on most computers with Microsoft packages
- Easy to use
- Budgeting, account, and bill paying tools
- Notifications to keep you on track with your budget
Cons
- Keeps asking if you want to subscribe to certain services
- Notifications about your bills only come up when you are fully logged into the program. It would be great to have notifications pop up in the task bar of the computer.
