Financial tracking

[Skip]

My wife is really good with Excel. She has our budget going out for about 5 years. I'm much more vague about my financials. I know where I want to go and work toward it without being fixated on when life happens.

I use Excel for monthly budget/actuals too.

Every bank service I've used is inaccurate and fails to properly categorize including one time expenses that I want isolated.

With Excel the data is mine. Each month I have to close our accounts and categorize by lines. Probably 30 minutes of work.

[Irving]

I use Excel for monthly budget/actuals too.

Every bank service I've used is inaccurate and fails to properly categorize including one time expenses that I want isolated.

With Excel the data is mine. Each month I have to close our accounts and categorize by lines. Probably 30 minutes of work.

The plan is to use Mint to see all transactions from all sources from each month, in one place, to then take that data and drop into an Excel spread sheet. The problem will remembering what certain uncategorized, or miscategorized transactions were from a year ago. Since it's just person data for my own interests and future planning, an unknown transaction here and there won't be a big deal.

[Irving]

We have membership in a "healthshare ministry". Maxes at $450 per family ($150 per person x3 -- $0 after for additional). Has a $500 per incident co-pay at highest level, so "wahhhh I have sniffles = Doctor" wouldn't be good for it, but "Is that my tibia?" would be fine. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about it.

I'm interested in the concept, but I won't waste anyone's time if it involves joining a church. Only because I don't feel comfortable presenting myself as something I'm not just for benefits. Thank you for mentioning.

[CS1983]

I'm interested in the concept, but I won't waste anyone's time if it involves joining a church. Only because I don't feel comfortable presenting myself as something I'm not just for benefits. Thank you for mentioning.

No church membership is required of which I'm aware (though my wife handled all the paperwork). We're Catholic and I'm fairly sure this healthshare is some non-denominational outfit, not associated with any particular denomination.

http://www.chministries.org/faqs.aspx
http://www.chministries.org/howitworks.aspx

I'm not eligible for CHM because I use dip (apparently being a fatass who eats horribly is not as bad as the devil's wintergreen delight, but I digress -- stupid Calvinist influence!). I'm "covered" for Obamacare purposes via the VA, being med retired.

[Irving]

Hmmm, I will look into this, and I hope others do as well. Thank you for the tip. Being self-employed can be rough for insurance.

[CS1983]

Hmmm, I will look into this, and I hope others do as well. Thank you for the tip. Being self-employed can be rough for insurance.

Even if you don't go with them, there are others around. We found CHM was the most financially sensible for us, but YMMV.

[Wulf202]

Thanks. I'm looking at $300 for cobra if I leave work

[Skip]

The plan is to use Mint to see all transactions from all sources from each month, in one place, to then take that data and drop into an Excel spread sheet. The problem will remembering what certain uncategorized, or miscategorized transactions were from a year ago. Since it's just person data for my own interests and future planning, an unknown transaction here and there won't be a big deal.

That's not a bad plan.

My "one time" line is for those unknowns that don't fit anywhere else. I add a comment in Excel to indicate what it was.

For example... "AR15 build" How many times does that happen?

[Irving]

What do you put for withdrawing cash for buying an item off of here, or Craigslist? I would decide based on what I'm buying it for, i.e. "home improvement" or "recreation."

What is your category for withdrawing cash for going to the casino or strip club? Recreation?

[Skip]

What do you put for withdrawing cash for buying an item off of here, or Craigslist? I would decide based on what I'm buying it for, i.e. "home improvement" or "recreation."

What is your category for withdrawing cash for going to the casino or strip club? Recreation?

"Vacation"

I group "one time" things up for each month, so say I spent....

Lower $80
LPK + Stock $160
Upper $400
RDS $300


I would book $940 for "another AR15."

Same thing on a vacation: Flights + Hotel + Dining + Misc = "Vacation"

Incidentals is a line for us and has a CC amount and cash amount so I just book the CC amount + cash spent. After a few months we can budget what we spend on that line (meals out for example) and know when to cut back or we can splurge.

Remaining cash is totaled with account balances at the end of the month. Just because I got it out of the ATM doesn't mean it's been spent so we get credit for cash (money) that we haven't spent.