About the Author
Hi! I’m Teri Cettina– a freelance personal finance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. I write for well-known consumer publications like Real Simple, Bankrate.com, Parenting, Parents, Better Homes & Gardens and many others.
I’m not a money expert, but I interview them all the time. And my family (husband, 2 daughters) and I try to use their smart ideas in our everyday life. In this blog, I share tips on saving money, spending it wisely, dealing with its emotional baggage and the like.
Visit my Web site.
Read more of my published articles.
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1.
Jeanne Smith | August 4, 2008 at 1:51 pm
way to go, Teri! this template is much cheerier than the other one. I like it a lot.
2.
Marie Tinnes | February 15, 2009 at 5:16 am
Hi I just read your post about using Quicken to track credit card purchases and i am doing that but i can’t seem to get the credit card purchases to show up in my spending report even though i have coded them with spending categories
any ideas
3.
tericettina | February 16, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hi, Marie– So you have a memorized spending report set up. And you’ve selected all the categories you want to see in that report? (for example, Dining Out, Groceries, etc.)? You choose those categories in the “Customize” and “Content” tabs of the memorized report. And you’re using those SAME categories to track your credit card purchases? And you’ve set up a credit card register/account (looks like a check register) to record your credit card purchases?
One other thing I can think of: You need to make sure your spending report draws from BOTH your checking account AND your credit card account. I’m on a Mac, but after I open “Reports & Graphs” and choose my memorized spending report, I checked these settings:Choose “Customize” then “Content.” Under “Accounts” I have “all” selected–not just my checking account. That way, the report also draws from my credit card register.
But I’ll tell you something else: I’m starting to think that Quicken may be more complicated than it needs to be these days. You might want to look into Mvelopes.com or Wesabe.com. You have to pay a monthly fee for Mvelopes, but I liked their intro video. The spending reports are very straight-forward. And they show how you can enter a credit card transaction in your checking account, then Mvelopes transfers each transaction to a “Pay my credit card” mvelope so you automatically remember to pay off your credit card at the end of the month. Check it out!
Wesabe looks very promising, too, and it’s free. Mint.com is another online player, but I think that one may be too basic. And I’ve heard you can’t do manual transactions–Mint just downloads everything from your accounts for you. I’m not sure I like that.
Let me know if I can help further. I’ll do my best!
Teri