Quicken anyone?

[DivaJen]

I posted this in my journal but thought I'd add a note here as well. Does anyone use Quicken? I'm going to start using it this year and see if it makes life easier for me and DH in terms of planning and budgeting.

[crosses]

I use quicken. It is helpful if you have the patience and stamina to input everything into the program. If you get lazy and stop putting in all your information, then it doesn't work well. I know that is obvious, but I have a hard time keeping up with my numbers sometimes.

[terry1156]

I have to agree with crosses. A great program if you can keep up with everything and it probably has more tools and functions than you could ever master in a lifetime. It makes doing your taxes a breeze if you do them yourself. But you do have to take the time each week to enter in all the numbers.

[DivaJen]

Thanks for the input. We do so much on credit card that in some ways I think it will be easy to use Quicken (I can import my statements and then go back and assign categories to each item). I also write the bulk of the checks, so I just need to keep up with those.

We'll see!

[DivaJen]

I've been writing in my journal a bit about this but thought I'd update this thread too. I'm still working with Quicken and trying to get it all figured out. I think so far everything is working correctly. It took me a couple of tries before I figured out how to apply a check written to pay off a credit card bill actually show up in the credit card account too, and not just in my check register. I thnk I've got that under control now.

For fun I looked at a pie chart of all of my spending to date (only about 2 months' worth). It is so nice to click that one button and see a breakdown of our spending.

[akaivyleaf]

Do you have to upgrade/buy a new version of Quicken every year like you do Microsoft Money? I've been contemplating making a purchase of this sort, but don't know which one to invest in. Right now I have a pretty complicated but terribly efficient excel spreadsheet.

[FrugalTexan75]

Quicken does offer upgrades every year, but no, you don't have to buy the upgrades each year. I honestly think that the ones that are 5 or 6 years old (or more) are better because they have less bells and whistles to clog up your computer.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura

[akaivyleaf]

Thats good to know. I will look into buying a copy

[FrugalTexan75]

Check on Ebay. I got a copy of 2000 edition of Money for $1 +s/h about a year ago.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura