Found this

Im not sure about others, but I have always struggled with my spending habits. I have even posted on here previously about this, and have received some helpful advice from other more frugal people on the forum. I wont say I am bad with money, I actually consider myself fairly frugal - especially compared to my work colleagues - though I do know how to spend money!

One of the most valuable threads on here that I have read was Simons "taming the debt monster" which was made a sticky, and has now extended to about 20pages of posts.

The best thing I took from this was "track your spending". What usually happens though is that I note my spending has faltered - I track it for a month or two - then lose interest once I have reigned myself back in.

Given my circumstances I am currently running a multiple of of bank accounts across a number of banks and have always had trouble "balancing" my accounts given all of the constant transfers in and out (not actual spending just transfers).
I know this shouldn't be so hard for me, but, lets face it, Im lazy with it.

However, I think finaly my prayers have been answered and I have found this little doozy which does most of the hard work for me.

https://getpocketbook.com/about

Ok - so you do need to provide your account details, but I have done some research and they seem to be relatively safe. There is a competing brand called Mint.com (those of you who read MMM will know of this) but it is US based and doesnt accept Australian accounts.

But it will give you a break down by spending category and breaks it into a nice little graph for you. It also has a memory, so once you change a description of a payment once, it remembers it.
You can change the reporting period to show you week, month or year - very handy.

I have only been using it for a week or so, but like it already.

What did I discover - some scary stuff about my spending habits. While I dont spend that much really (about $60k/year), I should be able to spend much much less, especially given I dont have any "normal life" costs (cars, house, phone, kids, etc etc).
The most disturbing thing I found was that I spend on average $250/week in restaurants and Bars!!!:eek:
If I didnt live in Narnia, I would be broke!

Blacky
 
my main banking atm is done with suncorp. As part of internet banking they provide this exact service. keep track of your income and expenses going in and out and seperate it all into catagories. Then its all put into monthly pretty little graphs which makes you realise what you have been doing. And easy to keep track of.

Not sure what other banks do it, but its perfect for the motivationally challenged as you click a button to set it up and then it does it all itself :D

usefull tool indeed.

cheers
 
Yep I've heard of this site.

It's basically an Australian version of mint.com which is US-based and is often featured in various "best money program" type of articles.

I would use pocketbook myself but I'm already well-entrenched in YNAB and do everything "their way" which is working for me, so whatever works for you really.
 
Do you know how many categories you can add?

Quite a lot of my expenses were automatically detected as Groceries, Petrol, Loan Repayment etc etc I've added in quite a few custom categories so far, havent seen any mention of limits.

Thanks for the link Blacky - Been looking for a way to do this :)
 
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