Comments on: Free Expense Tracker: A Simple Excel Spreadsheet May Be All You Need

By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Wedding on a Budget: Setting a Budget for Your Big Day

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:14:38 +0000

[...] their categories and formulas don’t make sense for you and your partner, why not use a simple expense tracking method with a basic Excel [...]

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By: Kristi

Kristi — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:26:02 +0000

Aaahh...love it! I just started searching for an idea of an excel expense tracker and yours popped up. This saved me a ton of time. I recently downloaded a free trial version of Microsoft Money, wasted an evening messing around with it and got nowhere. It was more complicated than I needed and couldn't do what I really wanted to (or maybe I just couldn't figure out how). Anyway, thanks a bunch for the idea...I'm stealing it!

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By: Queercents » Almost Debt Free: Expense Tracking with the Queercents Expense Tracker

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:00:39 +0000

[...] Some people truly hate this practice because it seems high-maintenance or impractical. I used to agree until I became desperate for a way to manage my increased income. Being that I lived as a careless spender all my life, the common sense solution to understand my loose-fisted ways (as someone with a degree in behavior analysis) was to create some sort of picture of my spending patterns with qualitative and quantitative details. Simply put, I needed to track expenses to wake up to the reality that I’m spending more than I make. I didn’t think asking for an easy-to-use, free expense tracker was such a tall order. But one tiresome afternoon, I became a crazed Goldilocks combing the internet for a simple financial tool that would do a little more than just capture a list of expenses, and a bit less than download my debit and credit card charges into an overly complicated database. All I wanted was a spreadsheet with some nifty sorting and calculating functions. That’s when I decided to make my own expense tracker on MS Excel, which I wrote about as one of my first posts on Queercents. Six months later, the spreadsheet has changed a bit with some fine-tuning adjustments. I’ve made it a bit simpler to read and manipulate, but it generates surprisingly detailed information. This simple spreadsheet has been so vital to my debt reduction strategy that we at Queercents have decided to make the expense tracker available to our readers during the Almost Debt Free series. To download, you must have MS Excel on your computer and some familiarity with the program. It doesn’t take much technical skill, but you’ll be working with functions not often used at the beginner level. No need to fear. I’ll do my best to walk you through sorting and AutoSum functions with the data you input. [Click here to download the Queercents Expense Tracker. You’ll be asked to confirm your email address, which will be kept strictly confidential and never sold or distributed.] If you’re not quite ready for Excel, the spreadsheet is available in PDF format so that you can track expenses with pen and paper. The layout of the PDF version allows you to make three-hole punches in copies of the expense tracker and keep the pages in a binder. The PDF is also great for jotting down expenses in real time, and then transferring them to your Excel spreadsheet later. [...]

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By: Queercents » Budgeting: Spending Money with Intention

Queercents » Budgeting: Spending Money with Intention — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:58:58 +0000

[...] How is he doing it? John is adamant about understanding and tracking his expenses. There are many programs out there, but why spend the money when you can just tailor your own Excel spreadsheet to your needs. Click here for his sample. [...]

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By: Queercents » Introduction to Queercents

Queercents » Introduction to Queercents — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:23:20 +0000

[...] Our finances run the gamut with age and experience. Erin is in college, John is obsessed with tracking expenses, Allison typically writes about taxes, Rich has ideas about investing, Adam often focuses on entrepreneurship, Moorea has some helpful money stories and Paula is full of career insights and general tips. I try to play the role of fearless leader when I'm not stalking Suze Orman or killing time on Zillow. [...]

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By: sonkun

sonkun — Wed, 16 May 2007 05:14:40 +0000

I clicked through from Mint. Nice article on using excel. I have been using excel to track expenses for two years now, and have been happy at the results. My spreadsheet is able to track catagories broken out by month using formulas. However, I would recommend getting into pivot tables. They work better than formulas, and you can make nice pivot charts.

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By: Personal Finance Interview with John of Queercents.com » MyMint | Free, Simple Personal Finance Software

Thu, 10 May 2007 11:20:52 +0000

[...] I use an excel spreadsheet I customized. Check it out on Queercents. [...]

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By: Queercents » AfterEllen.com Readers -- Please Start Here

Queercents » AfterEllen.com Readers -- Please Start Here — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:48:38 +0000

[...] Our finances run the gamut with age and experience. Erin is in college, John is obsessed with tracking expenses, Rich has ideas about investing and Paula's posts are full of career insights and general tips. Currently, Allison is writing a ten-part Tax Series. Since April 15th (or should I say April 17th) is just around the corner… it's worth pointing you to the links: [...]

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By: Queercents » Personal Finance in the Absence of Patience

Queercents » Personal Finance in the Absence of Patience — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:29:37 +0000

[...] When times get busy, I can't always keep track of every single expense on a daily basis. There are some days I have to spend an hour going over my receipts and my debit account activity to retrace my spending to keep my Expense Tracker up to date. [...]

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By: Queercents » Make Moving Cheaper by Avoiding Moving Pitfalls

Queercents » Make Moving Cheaper by Avoiding Moving Pitfalls — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:05:24 +0000

[...] Thanks to my handy-dandy Expense Tracker, I've noticed that I'll be over budget for going out to eat before month's end. I've now spent nearly $200 since the start of January, mostly because Zac and I are still living out of boxes and are not settled in yet. We live close to scores of dining options, most of them very affordable. We do love to cook, but going out to eat every night is far too easy a temptation in this neighborhood. [...]

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