We've had a spreadsheet to track income/outgo since 1993, when my husband went back to school. Basically, we did this because everything says that, to save money, you have to know where it's going. Back then, there was a lot less income and things were MUCH simpler. We lost 1993-2000 in some computer glitch, but that doesn't matter anymore.
Now the whole thing is far more complex. Cause we're anal and all. It's more for curiosity, but has come in handy when a question has arisen about something.
The main table has the months across the top. The left column starts by listing all the outgoing, and everything broken down and subdivided. So "Taxes" would have under it: federal, state, fica-ss ee, fica-mc ee, and see--however it's listed on the paycheck for each job.
Taxes, retirement, one-time costs, health/insurance, housing, transportation, shopping (edibles and non), clothing, household, entertainment, vacation, eating out, gifts, misc. And each of these has subcategories, as needed, like each different utility, or different types of transportation costs, etc. My husband has, on occasion, had me add rows to clarify things. And many cells have comments for each entry in the cell.
Like I said, we're anal. This doesn't all get referred to too often, but it's more for the "what did we do...?"
Below that is a summary table: the income and sums of each of the above listed categories, with a BALANCE at the bottom, to see if we are +/- for the month.
To the right of all of this is a column with the yearly summation of each category and subcategory, so we know how much we're spending for the year. At the bottom is the monthly average, comparing it to the prior year. Here's where we can see if we're suddenly blowing money compared to before.
To the right of all of this are a series of completely separate tables.
The first notes the regular bills, when due, when paid. This was more because I handle the bill-paying now, and got tired of my husband asking questions about it. "Here, you can see what's due when and whether it's been paid this month yet." Pre-emptive strike to shut him up.
The second summarizes our retirement accounts: IRA, Roth Ira, pension, 401k/403b, etc. Just to summarize in one place, at a glance. This gets updated just a couple of times a year because, whatever. Not many changes there.
The last table summarized our checking accounts, savings accounts, and CDs. Most get updated only monthly, except for the checking account. We use that a lot, naturally, but it better match the check register and bank statement. No reason for it not to.
As I said, we're pretty anal. Likely a bit of OCD in there. Most people say it's too much effort. The main effort is setting it up initially. After that, you really only need to spend about 10-15 minutes a week, unless you're actually looking at entries for some purpose.
I think I need to start saving money, or I'll be broke by the end of this year. I may also start looking into consolidating my bills and cut down unnecessary spending. I certainly don't want to get to a point where I'm living paycheck to paycheck.
But no, we were just better off than most of the townsfolk.
