[Aleta]

My son is an accountant and he also says that Excel Spreadsheets are good to use. Although Quicken and some of the other software are good products, you are limited to what you can do. To have a more complete picture, the spreadsheet allows you to create your own plan. For tracking, I think the other programs are good for the income and outgo. It gives you an immediate picture.

As with the person above, I also agree that when you have budgeted categories that you can sure your money is being allocated properly. I sometimes wait till the end of the year and see what left over in each category and I put that into savings or will leave a months payment there in advance and deposit the rest wherever you want. That's also very exciting to see how well you did in the year.