Let me know if you find it useful after you've used it awhile. I used to use Microsoft Money to do some similar things, but it eventually drove me crazy 'cause I couldn't get it to report in ways that were useful for me, and couldn't figure out how its brain was unable to reconcile my checkbook balance when it communicated directly with the bank. I was so confused by the overpowered analysis it wanted to do on my puny funds that I ended up inventing my own spreadsheet to track the same stuff, which I still depend on.

I thought it was kinda neat. It's easy to set up your accounts and such, but I like the control I have in Excel.

I learned all my accounting from my father when I was 13. So I am an account book type of gal. I know, it's pathetic. But I've never had enough time to make the switch.

I'll keep you updated on whether I find it useful- I think I'm mainly going to use it to track spending in certain categories (restaurants, for starters); right now I have all my accounts entered on it, but I don't know that I will really need to see a breakdown of all the different ways I shift my money around my various savings accounts.

I hated having to tell the computer to split expenses. Like, I buy a lot of things on trips to the grocery store - food, pet-care stuff, personal-care stuff like soap and OTC meds, and household stuff like light bulbs - and I want to track each category separately. But I had to go in and break that down manually on Money, which made me nuts. With my Excel sheet I just take the totals right off the receipt and enter them - that, to me, is a more direct interface.

Miko - how did you create your initial spreadsheet?

I signed up for it a while ago, but it couldn't add my bank account. I'm still using Wesabe and manually uploading my bank data. I really like using the PearBudget spreadsheet... though now it seems to have gone onlineweb2.0-y.

I've been using Mint for about a month and it doesn't really work for me. My bank account is where most of my fuckups occur, and it's not supported.
I'll probably go back to plain old spreadsheet soon enough.

it's really boring and lo-fi, typewriter. I just have sections for each bill, credit card, and loan. They run horizontally and I have the interest rate in there so the balance will update when I enter the paid bill and reflect balance remaining. Then I have a list of expenses that are itemized, which I just use functions to add up in categories. another column for credit card charge transactions to check against, and one to track deductibles, and of course a section for income. It's nothing fancy at all.

I use Quicken. I would disrecommend any software from Intuit, although I am stuck with them.

I'm wary of giving all my financial info to one online service.