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I'm going insane trying to keep track of my finances. I purchased a binder (it's like an accordion, pretty neat actually) from Office Depot, and thought it would help me...it's just not working. I also have a roommate and have no idea how to keep track of what she should pay. She also recently wrote me a $250 check and I lost that...so she said she would make up for it by purchasing groceries (with her free $300/month EBT card), but I'm not sure if that's completely fair, considering I can't figure if that would be over the $250/month I could have gotten. Suggestions?

Excel, and it's just recording numbers and simple math, no big deal. If it's just the two of you, she should pay half your rent+utilities+groceries unless you come to some other agreement, and unless you buy a ton of food (or really expensive food) you might not spend $250 on groceries in a month, but it will probably be close. And it doesn't really matter, she can just buy shit until it adds up to $250 (or whatever she owes).

Split rent and utilities.

And going forward, each buy your own groceries and keep them separated--have your own shelves in the pantry, fridge etc.

That's assuming it's just a roommate and not a girlfriend. That's the easiest way to keep things sorted out and avoid money arguments with roommates.

For the current situations, just have her buy your groceries until she's paid back what she owes. Don't let her deduct stuff that she's buying for herself to eat.

Pics of the roomie?

Well I just found the $250 check, woo! It was under the couch D: - That's half the rent. She also just gave me $15, half the water bill. How would I record this in Excel? She doesn't have $250 in her Checking, so I'll wait until she deposits more funds. I'm a nice guy and don't want her to get a fee for the check bouncing.

www.mint.com

You really don't even need excel.

Just get a dry erase board--or put a piece of paper on the fridge with a magnet.

But the amount of rent, amount of each bill (and due date on it) etc. so she knows to get you half the money in time to pay the bills.

Sounds like you need to budget yourself 30 minutes a day to organize yourself. I can't say i have ever lost a $20 check much less a $250 one. I'm guessing your place is pretty messy as well?

If all you need to do is split the bills then you don't really need excel. I do my budget for each month using excel and have the rent, utilities, credit card bills, etc. subtracted from what I and my gf make, how much we had in our bank accounts at the beginning of the month totaled up and added in with the income post-bills to get a reasonably accurate summary of how much money we have total. Then I also have budgets set up for food and gas that are static and extra spending using formulas based on the money leftover from the last month, and money subtracted for insurance payments, etc. (that are every year or six months, but I divide amongst the months for budgeting to ensure there's enough money), and then of course a spot for how much we'll move over to the savings.

But yeah, if you just want something to put up and split the bills then you can do the whiteboard thing or whatever so that you both know what you need to pay (total/2).

there are some online options for this. billsarein.com is one i just found on google...looks alright. I found billsarein while searching for another shared household/apartment pay rent/bills online. I saw it on lifehacker awhile ago and thought it was really awesome but can't find the website now, it looked really slick...but billsarein seems to have the same functionality.

Excel is a quick & easy way to keep track of who owes what...I personally never had a problem with it.

Damn, best of luck with that. I can't really help you with this since I'm going to be in that situation myself. I'm totally lost on when it comes to expenses, and all that jazz. I took a year off to work and do other shiz and now planning to head out this year. (Gotta take the SAT first though. Haha)

Your in Austin, TX huh? Are you in UT?

I'm heading to either Tech or State myself.

$300 EBT? She gets food stamps? Is she a minor or a person over the age of 50? If she isn't, lucky...

You really need to take half-an-hour for your budget planning, if you are that worried about finances. A penny saved is a penny earned. That's the motto.

Originally Posted by keithp Pics of the roomie?

this

i cant believe no one is forcing the op to post pics of his female roomie...possibly naked.

Notepad and Calculator for teh wins.

$500 for rent? Now you're making me miss Texas...

Originally Posted by Riyonuk Well I just found the $250 check, woo! It was under the couch D: - That's half the rent. She also just gave me $15, half the water bill. How would I record this in Excel? She doesn't have $250 in her Checking, so I'll wait until she deposits more funds. I'm a nice guy and don't want her to get a fee for the check bouncing.

Do not just use excel. I started using quicken 9 years ago and haven't stooped. Once you get in the habit of recording everything in quicken you wont have this trouble


This clink could help you a lot LINK