My favorite tool is simply MS Excel. I have one main worksheet with various tabs. Tabs include Budget, Networth, Retirement, and Goals.

GnuCash does everything I need for personal finance.

My favorite tool is Excel I use it for writing notes, budgeting, to do lists, sorting any data.
Office 2007 is really cool. At first I couldn't find any of the stuff I usually use. But once you get used to it, it is so easy to find things. They are all at the top in icons.

I use Google Docs spreadsheets to track my finances. It's available at work or at home, which is nice.

I use the most basic of them all... an Excel spreadsheet. :-)

Yodlee.com

Love the charts, graphs, and how it keeps all of my accounts together (including things like airline miles and rewards points!)

I mostly just use my head to keep track of the basic spending stuff. However, to help keep track of all the bigger expenses I use the Google Documents Spreadsheet.

I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since discovering Mint.com, I haven't looked back.

It's fully customizable and all my financial sites download information into it with no problems.

I still like to stick to pencil and paper/check register. I have not quite gotten the same feel from any product

I love quicken. It's easy to use and I can see where my money is going. I also use a simple excel spreadsheet for budgeting, although we've been trying to live under budget and it needs to be redone.

I have found that using my online banking has helped tremendously. Although I have planned to set up a monthly budget and bill paying program, I find that simply keeping my dayplanner up to date with bill due dates and a set plan for our bill payments/ paydays each month helps keep me better on track.
Blessings,
Kath

My wife and I built a simple Excel spreadsheet from scratch about 12 years ago. We've modified it occasionally here and there, but it is basically the same as it was when we started.

It has helped keep us in line financially for the last 12 years, and hopefully for the foreseeable future...

I've just started using Excel. Chase's online system is enough for me.

I still use pencil and paper and a check register, mostly because I have a vague notion how to use excel. However, if I got free software, I know I could learn quickly!

My favorite online finance tools are Mint and Google Calendar.

Mint-- I know there's the whole security issue, but I just love the way it captures all my investments and expenditures in 1 place. It really is such a pleasure to NOT have to load everything into 1 program and fiddle with it. Also, it's great for analyzing your expenses and tracking your budget.

Google Calendar-- I have a separate calendar set up for all the bills that have to be paid, and email reminders for all of the bills. That takes a bit of time, but then you're golden-- no more unpaid bills! This is especially useful for bills that aren't on autopay.

I keep track in a google docs spreadsheet which I update weekly, I use good old paper and pencil to write in expenses and google calendar to list bill due dates which are set up to send me email reminders.

We use Money and several Excel spreadsheets at home and at work I use Quickbooks and lots of Excel spreadsheets.

I use Google Docs Spreadsheet since it is accessible at home, work, or on the road (via notebook). It works well for most of my needs.

My local bank also has a financial tracker on their website. Simply called FNB Financial Tracker, it looks and works much like Excel.

Both are free applications and freely available to me whenever and wherever I need them.

I had an excel file that I used for years (totally second the comment above about using pivot tables), but once I got MS Money, I found it did a pretty job of tracking transactions and was slightly less labor-intensive.

I'm really basic with my tools. I just graduated, so until very recently, I haven't had much to budget (and it's only a little more now), but I still use the same methods: a combination of a good ol' fashioned legal pad and digital-desktop-sticky notes to keep track of when things are due/paid, etc (a different color for each type of thing!). It works for me, especially since I only budget month-to-month.

I keep my finances simple a few ways:
* notepad - I create simple views of budgets and spend.
* monthly burn - to keep it simple, I figure out my ballpark monthly spend so I know the ranges of goodness (and so I can do quick adjustments or calculations.)
* pay myself first - I treat myself as my most important bill and auto-pay myself each check.

The notepad technique surprises people, but I've managed million dollar budgets very effectively. It's all about the views and info organization.

Notepad & pencil and Google documents

For many years, we used cash! If you have cash for spending in envelopes, when it is gone, you stop spending. Since we have a credit card with a rewards program right now, we use it for everything we can so that we can build up our rewards for a vacation, but using cash for so many years help keep us mindful of how much we spend and where we spend it.

I use Quicken to keep track of bank accounts and Excel for budgeting and investment tracking. Works for me but would rather have one tool to do all of the above and more.

I use mint.com because it is easy to use and imports all of your transactions for you.

Mint.com and old-fashioned pen and paper. :)

I keep everything in MSMoney, down to the last cent. All in categories, with memos, etc. I also keep an Excel spreadsheet for things like medical mileage, gas mileage for all of our cars, and how much the eggs my chickens lay cost me... so far it's about $15 per egg so it's a good thing they also serve as entertainment and pest control. Anyway, MSMoney and Excel.

Albeit, an older version (2007, I think). Works well and the graphs are easy to create. Also good old pen and paper to keep track of daily expenses.

I only use online banking. Can websites like Wise Bread be considered tools? I have learned so much from your emails.

Debra L

I use MS Excel to track my financial activities. I have created several spreadsheets to address revenue, expenditures and then further breakdowns for savings, retirement plans, etc. This gives me a total view of my financial status at any time.

I have used MS Excel for years to track all of my finances. I love pivot tables and can't imagine giving them up.

We have our money at a bank and a large mutual fund company, so I just keep track of our statements online. By simplifying where our money is, I don't need to rely on spreadsheets and such.

I have made a simple 'Personal Budget' Excel spreadsheet add-on that automatically subtracts the little personal out-of-pocket stuff that you buy without thinking from the sum that I have allocatted for my 'Personal Spending Allocation' ( PSA, for short )for that pay cycle.

I can alter my PSA, BUT I can ONLY do this at the beginning of each pay cycle. That way, I can't cheat.

As I see myself getting close to the wire I simply curtail what 'I must have right now' instead of going to the ATM and getting a quick $20.

I was surprised how those Starbucks lattes and pizza slices added up AND how I really didn't need them!

We use Quicken at home, and mint.com on the go. Both work well for what we need.

Is a simple tool. Excel. I can create whatever format works best for me. I found when I purchase budget software, I end up not needing certain things and I feel it was a waste. I can also color coordinate my entries (little bit nerdy :) )

I keep track of day-to-day receipts using Microsoft Money 2007. (I've been strongly considering switching to Mint.) Then, I enter monthly data into a Google Docs spreadsheet.

My favorite tool on the computer has got to be excel- you can do JUST about anything with it- keeping finances together, inventory control when selling used kids clothes, assisting with blog giveaways, it's just my go-to business program!

I would love to win this. We use the earlier version and my son keeps bugging me to buy it so we can upgrade.

I have 4 children who are always using it for reports, etc...

Yes, I wouldn't mind a chance at getting. A must have in this day in age. Thanks for a chance to win.

The main way I keep up with checking is through online banking. Being able to download banking files directly into excel and tracking additional accounts really helps organize and keep on top of things.

Our favorite tool is Excel.

Please discount my earlier entry (number 76). For some reason my not entirely reliable brain read MS Office, which I don't need, as Windows 7, which I do.

We use Excel... '97! Out of date, much?

I love Quicken for my finances. Would love to have MS Office!
Kim

My wife and I have used mint.com to great success in getting a handle on our finances. Just being aware of how much is coming in and how it's going out really helps and mint.com does a great job of visualizing that information.

Thanks,
Hani

I use a Google docs template to track finances. It is easily accessible from anywhere.

My wife and I have been Quicken users since 1989, but we've been getting more and more dissatisfied with it as it has changed from a simple, easy-to-use checkbook-balancing tool into a bloated, resource-hogging application crammed with features we have no use for. Intuit forces you to upgrade every couple of years by disabling the online access features of older versions. The last straw was when Intuit crippled the least expensive version so that only new customers can use it. (It won't import your existing data files from a previous version.)

So we are now looking for a new solution. A Web-based tool seems like the best approach, but we haven't found one that meets our needs. Quicken Online doesn't seem to be able to handle two-income budgeting. Mint won't let us specify automatic payments for predictable monthly bills. The search continues . . .