Gnucash is great for linux. Helps me budget my shit, fuck.

It's a fine practice, but

>I can see exactly how many times I can go to McDonalds and still pay my cell phone bill

I had trouble taking you seriously at that point

>>173
Oh quit being such a damn pedant.

>>171
I never really bothered with excel except on my worksheets for work which all I have to do is fill out. Where can I get more of an in depth knowledge of it? Books, Resources, etc

>>171
OP post your spreadsheet file so we can use it. If it's better than my google spreadsheet one that I keep then I'll use it.

I don't really understand why you'd want to go through the trouble of keeping a spreadsheet like this when your objective should be spending as little as possible. A spreadsheet won't help you with that.

It sounds more like you're trying to spend as much as possible whilst keeping your bills paid and staying within the confines of your bank account.

>>193
It can be used the way OP is using it (maximizing spending while staying out of debt), but it also can be used the way you want to use it(maximizing saving while still living).
The concept is still the same and is still just as effective

>>193
Until you realize how much you're spending and what you're spending it on then saving money is nearly impossible.

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Goddammit OP, teach me how to fucking budget. Every site I've looked to are full of retards who blather on without actually showing jack shit.

What the fuck do I put in the budget? How do I organize it so that payments are automatically deducted?

How do I do this shit in excel?

budgeting: spending every dollar on paper, on purpose, before the month begins, to include savings and entertainment (if you're not a poor nigger).

no software and very rudimentary math skills required.

>243

Basic budget:

Income (what your job pays) - Fixed bills (rent/utilities) = Flexible money

Flexible Money - Essentials (food/fuel/etc.) = Excess Money

If Excess Money > 0 save/spend it however you like
If Excess Money < 0 You're fucked, reanalysis what you consider 'Essentials' and trim it back, start looking for somewhere cheaper to live and consider ways of increasing your income.

Getting a balance between the time period (weekly/monthly tends to work best for personal finance) and how much of a breakdown on each thing costs is a personal thing. My mate breaks down his coffee and torade on a daily basis, I just bundle all my work lunch under one fairly accurate number.

>>243
This.

>>243
TEACH ME HOW TO BUDGIE
TEACH ME HOW TO BUDGIE
TE-TEACH ME HOW TO BUDGIE
TEACH ME HOW TO BUDGIE

I already keep track of my finances (although in a more check-in-every-transaction type of way). I earn a minimum basic salary, and over this past semester I'm in nearly 1k deficit. I expect next semester to improve since I won't have ridiculous medical expenses or anymore tuition; plus, I can get some back with some tax considerations. In either case, all I know is that by keeping track of these expenses I know I have to stock up on my savings/find alternative ways of making extra money ASAP.

In either way, my post is in support to OP's point: keeping track of how the hell you are spending your money lets you know if you are on your way on becoming broke, are caught on a dead end (earn all and spend all), or are actually making some sort of money.

Have a bump

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Seems like a lot of people here don't know the difference between budgeting and accounting. To do this right you need to keep track of two things, what you intended to spend (your budget), and what you actually spent (your account). Otherwise you can't analyze what you have done well and were you have spent too much.

At the beginning of the month you start with just the budget coloumn filled out. As payments for each post are finalized for that month, you fill them in middle coloumn, getting the difference to the right. Positive numbers for income, negative for spending.

Running expenses like groceries etc, will need to be tallied separately and added at end of month. Use what you have learned to budget your next month.

"Sum totals" is the sum of the totals in the difference coloumn (except for Total Left), and should be the same as the difference for Total Left. If they are not, something is wrong with the spreadsheet.

Protip is to take a close look at what you spend on healthy foods vs snacks, even the price of different kinds of food, spending on magazines/newspapers, money spent on eating out, alchohol etc.

Anyways, just off the top of my head. Go rent a book on accounting/bookkeeping at the library.

O glorious master, teach me the ways of the spreadsheets.
All jokes aside i am interested, but given how long ago middle school was i cant remember crap about using excell. I somehow feel that i should have remembered it and that it would have made those first months of living alone not so hard.

>>741
Basic spreadsheets are easy.

Fill in the words where you want them,
Fill in (or leave blank) the spaces you want to manually enter numbers,
For the numbers you want the computer to fill out it's basic maths. The only thing to remember is to put the equals sign first... so:
=A1+A2-B2
Adds the contents of Cell A1 to Cell A2 and subtracts the contents of B2 and displays the answer. Your basic operators are:
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division

You should be able to put together >>720 example without any problems. All the formulas are entered in the bold type cells and simply addition of the cells above.

I am a uni student and amongst other things I do cost/meal/day to work out fullness to $ ratio. Step up nigga.