One of the disciplines I have been trying to keep over the past two years is to track every penny I spend. As time went on, I got better and better at accurately tracking everything. One thing that hasn’t gotten better over that time was my method for tracking everything I spend.

For all but the month and a half, I was using a very simple spreadsheet. The spreadsheet had columns for the date, the account, a short note, and the amount. This worked pretty well most of the time. It really broke down when I tried to do any analysis though. I think the reason is that I had to do some work to do any analysis and most of the free spreadsheet programs (local or online) don’t have good analysis tools. About once a quarter over the past couple of years, I would search around for something new. I think I even tried a few things out for a few days only to discard them for one reason or another.

This is a discipline that is important for me, so I wanted to find a good solution to start using once I got married. I really wanted to find an easy way to track and budget our expenses as a family. It is also one of the vows we are committing to as a community.

What to do? Well, finally one of my quarterly searches was fruitful. I found PearBudget a free spreadsheet that you can download from the web. It is easy to use and you can get up and running in about 20 minutes.

We started using it for both of us at the beginning of October (just before we got married). So far, I like it. They have included analysis as part of the design. When you start using it you fill in expense categories and a monthly budget for each category. You can easily evaluate whether your budget fits your income by comparing the budget total that is done for you. You also have a tab for each month of the year. You fill in expense items as you go and your performance to your budget is reported out in an analysis section at the bottom. You can also include all of your income in a column in each monthly work sheet.

I really like this setup, because you just fill in the data. You don’t have to worry about reconciling within your budget application. This is something that turns me away from most personal finance applications/spreadsheets. I don’t want to reconcile in my tracking tool. I just want to track what goes in and what goes out. Keep it simple.

If there is one feature that is missing, it is the ability to keep track (date, account, a small note, and the amount) of each line item. I suppose if I really want this feature, maybe I can just keep a separate monthly tab for transactions. They are planning a web 2.0 version of PearBudget. I hope they add the ability to enter some details with each expense and income item.

See PearBudget for more info. See also dimewise. This is a web application that I seriously considered before settling on PearBudget.

Why is tracking everything that comes in and everything that goes out important to me? I think how we spend out money reflects our values. I think a judgement free tracking of our spending and income allows us to gauge whether or not we are living in a way that is consistent with what we believe. It also informs our way of life and provides feedback. See Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence for more info.