Excel Spreadsheet - I'm sure many of you do this

[TexasNative]

But I thought I would share for anyone who does not.

I have all of my recurring expenses in an excel sheet. This includes my debts, utilities, and anything else I have to pay on a monthly basis. I also have the phone numbers, account numbers, websites with usernames and passwords, they day payments are due, a collumn that tells me whether the payment is on autopay or manual, and balances and interest rates for debts. Sometimes when I'm bored I will pull up the sheet and call a company to ask for a lower payment. I just got my dish bill lowered by $15 yesterday by asking about other plans. I've done the same with my cell phone recenlty. It really helps to have all of that information on one page.

[ValL]

That sounds like a very organized thing to do! I think that would be very useful. It's true that it's always worth asking for a better deal. We've often negotiated lower prices for car or home insurance, especially. Being able to tell the company exactly how long you've been with them could help too in the discussions.

[khorrell]

I use an excel spreadsheet to make sure I'm on top of things, but I hadn't considered adding the account #s, phone #s, etc. That's a great idea, as long as no one hijacks my info

I haven't tried to negotiate any bills in a while...put that one on the to do list.

[hermione]

I used a spreadsheet for my finances, but haven't done this, which may not be a bad idea. In fact, it totally sounds like something someone of my personality - Type A/slightly obsessive compulsive - would do and I am a little surprised that I haven't done it already.

I really need to call up my service companies to see if I can have my bills lowered. Though if I wait till I'm bored, I may never get around to it.

[FinanciallySMART]

Google has a document feature that one can also use as well which is a secured one. Calling the cable company was a wonderful idea but it seems that you got this discount because you had expand on your plan.

[RickLee]

I've been using Excel since the early 1990's and for me, I keep track of all the following:

- Family Balance Sheet, by person columns, with goal targets columns
- Debts - outstanding balance, last transaction, interest rate
- Expenses - by monthly columns, by category and supplier rows, by payment type - cash, credit card, etc.
- Income - by monthly columns, by source rows
- Bank account balances, by person columns, with goal targets
- Bank account transactions - downloaded from online
- Investments holdings - with asset allocations and graphs
- Investments transactions - for performance measurement
- Inventory - of all worldly possessions, for home insurance purposes, with location and description, cost, source, and market value in case I have to firesale it on craigslist

All the above get updated regularly, to keep me on track. When I stopped tracking for a year, I stopped building financial wealth for that length of time.

[starshard0]

I'd be down with using a spreadsheet to keep track of everything, but as of right now I have nothing to keep track of. The only money I spend during the month is things that aren't recurring.