Take control of your cash!
For many people cash is still an important part of the way that they budget, manage and spend their money.
It can be a good way to control your spending and keep a budget, because with cash you can see how much you have left to spend.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CONTROL YOUR CASH?
Money is one of the few precious things (along with time) that everybody wants more of.
Money is important to so many, not only because of the things that it buys, but the opportunities and options that it can bring as well.
Some people use cash as a money management tool instead of using a credit card, with valid reasons. There are no fees for using cash, and you can't get into debt as easily using cash as you can with a credit card... but at the end of the month a credit card will allow you to see (and remember) where you spent your money. Cash does not (on it's own) have this same advantage.
It's easier to track spending using a card, where each purchase is recorded, than it is with cash for this reason.
This can present a bit of a problem when it comes to maintaining and keeping to a household budget. Cash, and tracking cash purchases can leave a hole in an otherwise successful budget.
BUDGETING CASH
When it comes to budgeting cash you have a couple of choices...
You can use a pen and paper, a budgeting spreadsheet, or personal budgeting software. We develop and sell a software solution that is perfect for budgeting cash, as well as keeping track of cheques, credit cards, bills, everyday banking and loans... It's called Budgets Get Real.
Tracking your income and expenses is key to your financial success, but cash is one element that most other budgeting and personal money management systems are weak on, it's like it almost doesn't exist.
Cash is still widely used worldwide, and for that reason any system that doesn't take cash management into consideration is pretty useless.
What Budgets Get Real offers you
60 Day Money Back, Satisfaction Guarantee
Advanced Technology. It does the work for you!
A Complete Picture. View all of your accounts and loans at once.
Freedom to use at home, work and on the go. Runs on both PC & Mac. Take it anywhere, it's portable.
No ongoing costs + Free support
A way to track your spending, budget and balance your checkbook in less than half the time.
A complete money management system - with good tools and information. Jargon free!
Exceptional security for your data
In the US, cash still accounts for 33% of purchases 1.
In the UK 72% of all payments are still made using cash 2.
... And in Australia cash is an ever-popular method for spending (see inset) because it is simple to use and doesn't attract surcharges 3.
Because cash is still a major method of spending, it is just as important for you to keep track of where you've spent your cash as it is for other methods of spending.
Regardless of how you spend your money (whether it be via cash, EFTPOS / POS, cheque or credit card), it is important to know how much you are spending and where you are spending it. |
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How much of your spending is cash?
Because with another budgeting system, that's how big the hole in your budget could be.
If you are serious about improving your personal finances, or building wealth it's important to understand what's going on with your cash.
You need an understanding of how you are spending your money if you want to successfully take control of your finances.
The better you understand your relationship with money, the easier it will be for you to set meaningful goals - not just for what you want to do with your money, but for what you want to achieve in life.
If you struggle to control your spending or to manage your debt, setting clear goals is an important part of planning your financial comeback.
Having a plan to take control of your money can also be a powerful force in taking control of your life. If you truly want to take control of your money you have to take the first step
You won't get your finances in order doing the same thing, you have to try something different .
This may sound difficult and time-consuming, but it's not.
In fact, we've set about making the process of taking control of your cash dead-set lazy. That's what technology should do, make things easy.
How does Budgets Get Real let you take control of your cash?
There are several unique ways that Budgets Get Real lets you manage and track cash.
- View your overall spend - from your wallet, your bank account, credit cards and cash purchases.
- Compare what you are spending in cash to a budget, or just track and categorise your spending.
- View your current spend progress at any time.
Budgets Get Real allows you to see the total amount you are taking out, at the ATM, at the shops etc, your total cash withdrawal. Set limits and alarms for spending and withdrawals - you can do this per account or overall. It lets you know when you have exceeded a set limit or budget and by how much.
It's easy to see exactly how much has been spent:
What puts Budgets Get Real at the top for managing cash are the different ways to track cash - through both withdrawals and purchases.
Cash Taken Out at the ATM:
Start tracking your cash as soon as your get it out at the ATM and put it into your wallet.
Budgets Get Real can track your ATM withdrawals, and let you know how much cash you have taken out (in total) over any given period of time... it might be more than you think.
Any cash withdrawal is automatically added to your wallet, and because ATM transactions are listed on your bank statement you won't need to enter them into Budgets Get Real, that will be done automatically.
All you need to do is nominate what you did with the money.
Cash Out at the Shops:Know how much cash you're taking out in-store.
Many stores will allow you to take 'cash out' whenever you make a purchase. If you take cash out, Budgets Get Real lets you nominate how much - to give you a realistic idea of how much you are actually taking out in cash.
By nominating your 'cash out' you can get an even more accurate idea of how you are spending.
For example, if you get cash out at the supermarket you can make a record of it in Budgets Get Real. This way you will know that part of a purchase was cashout, instead of 100% groceries.
This sort of cash tracking can help you to control spending and accurately budget your money. Not doing this would make it look as if you were spending more on groceries than you actually were!
Track the Cash In your Wallet:Then there's cash itself and keeping track of keeping track of how you, or your partner, spend it.
Budgets Get Real uses the concept of 'Wallets' to help you with tracking cash. These Wallets represent your physical wallets or purses. You can create multiple wallets - for yourself or for others, such as your partner and children.
Wallets allow you to track all of your cash purchases and transfers. A purchase is when you spend cash, whereas a transfer is when you transfer cash from your wallet to another wallet, perhaps that of your partner or children.
From your 'Wallet' you can view and categorise your cash purchases and transfers.
You can set spending limits and alerts on these wallets too:
At the end of the month (or whenever you want) you can balance your wallet like a chequebook, quickly and easily. Enter your purchases from receipts, memory or from a guess. In the end, some idea is always better than nothing.
If you have trouble remembering where you've spent your cash, try adding your purchases to a message in your phone, or to a piece of paper at the time of purchase. Keep them and your receipts; don't worry if you don't remember everything.
You can use wallets as you would envelopes for budgeting if you want, but we think that your money is best where it's earning something, like in your bank!
Work Related and Tax Deductible Expenses:This feature is especially built for work related or tax-deductible expenses, it works with cash and with all other types of payment.
You may have bought something for work that you need to be reimbursed for, or that you can claim against your tax return. Enter tax-deductible purchases to make a record, so that come tax time you will remember what you can claim.
At the end of the financial year, you can print out the list of these expenses to give to your accountant. We recommend that you keep the receipts or tax invoices for these purchases.
Budgets Get Real is an excellent tool for taking control of your finances, eliminating debt and building wealth.
Take advantage of all of Budgets Get Real's great features for managing your money.
Including lots of tools to save you time, effort and money!
- quick, easy and accurate budgets
- bill reminders
- our CashCurve (a cash flow and future financial-position indicator)
- income and expense tracking
- a unique cash-tracking system
- work and tax-deductible expenses tracker
- easy to understand reports
- makes reconciling cheques and balancing your checkbook both faster and easier
Budgets Get Real has made use of technology to make things quicker and easier for you.
Budgets Get Real is not just a budgeting program, it's a complete money management system.It's powerful, but easy to use.
... And it comes at an exceptional price - $97AUD (that includes support).
If Budgets Get Real isn't the best value, money management system that you expected, or if you're unhappy with it, we'll refund your money in full.
Take a 60 day test drive with our ironclad
money back guarantee
1. http://www.aba.com/Press+Room/020806cashisking.htm
2. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=5008
3. www.apca.com.au/Public/apca01_live.nsf/ResourceLookup/2006_PM_Quarter_3.pdf/$File/2006_PM_Quarter_3.pdf
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