http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/weekly-checking-account-balance-bills-paid.html Save Money - A Personal Finance Blog By A Husband And Wife Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:26:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/weekly-checking-account-balance-bills-paid.html#comment-3846 Not Made Of Money » Meeting Grocery Budget Goals - Almost There Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:21:59 +0000 http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/weekly-checking-account-balance-bills-paid.html#comment-3846 [...] I’ve been working on getting the grocery bill decreased.   In December we reviewed our Quicken reports and realized that the spending on our grocery bill was much higher than we had budgeted.  That is one of the many great features of using Quicken for tracking finances.  It is very easy to find out what you spent on any category of purchases from entertainment to food costs to medical expenses.  This is dependent, of course, on how accurately you enter the information in to Quicken.  Since we update our finances on a weekly basis, it has never been too much of a burden.  However, I find that if I am tired when doing the weekly update, I may not do as many “split” transactions as my husband does, because he will really hunt through every receipt and make sure that every item is categorized exactly.  I may just “round the numbers” and lump stuff into “household” if the majority of items on the receipt are household related, such as when I shop at Target.  [...] [...] I’ve been working on getting the grocery bill decreased.   In December we reviewed our Quicken reports and realized that the spending on our grocery bill was much higher than we had budgeted.  That is one of the many great features of using Quicken for tracking finances.  It is very easy to find out what you spent on any category of purchases from entertainment to food costs to medical expenses.  This is dependent, of course, on how accurately you enter the information in to Quicken.  Since we update our finances on a weekly basis, it has never been too much of a burden.  However, I find that if I am tired when doing the weekly update, I may not do as many “split” transactions as my husband does, because he will really hunt through every receipt and make sure that every item is categorized exactly.  I may just “round the numbers” and lump stuff into “household” if the majority of items on the receipt are household related, such as when I shop at Target.  [...]

]]> http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/weekly-checking-account-balance-bills-paid.html#comment-252 Not Made Of Money : Paid The Property Taxes Bill - Got The Early Discount Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:39:20 +0000 http://notmadeofmoney.com/blog/2006/11/weekly-checking-account-balance-bills-paid.html#comment-252 [...] As I mentioned during last week’s regular paying the bills, our property tax bill was coming due. We pay our property taxes and homeowner insurance ourselves, rather than allowing the mortage company to collect it in escrow throughout the year. We did this for several reasons. First, the mortage company seemed to have difficulty paying the homeowner insurance on a timely basis. We would get letters from the insurance company that it had not been paid. Second, the mortage company would not calculate the escrow amounts correctly and would always estimate on the “high” end. When we refinanced the mortage a few years ago, we set it up so that the mortgage company would not collect the escrows. [...] [...] As I mentioned during last week’s regular paying the bills, our property tax bill was coming due. We pay our property taxes and homeowner insurance ourselves, rather than allowing the mortage company to collect it in escrow throughout the year. We did this for several reasons. First, the mortage company seemed to have difficulty paying the homeowner insurance on a timely basis. We would get letters from the insurance company that it had not been paid. Second, the mortage company would not calculate the escrow amounts correctly and would always estimate on the “high” end. When we refinanced the mortage a few years ago, we set it up so that the mortgage company would not collect the escrows. [...]

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