Bounced Check

So. Now since the computer has been upgraded and the hard drive expanded, I was ready to get my hands dirty.


I love shiny new things, and any brand new applications for my sexy Snow Leopard OS was definitely a plus to maintaining my 'cool' status.


I spent endless hours (well really like a good 20-25) looking through every nook and cranny in the new operating system trying to see what it was that I was missing. I was destined to purchase a new application to make my life better. The hard part was decided what it was that I needed to make better.


Money.


Background:
Now since we had a house, a baby and a car lease, I definitely needed a way to organize our spending habits. I guess I should be fair and say MY spending habits. That is of course why this blog exists!!


I wanted something that I could manipulate as much as possible. I wanted it to tally up all the transactions I had for the month and give me a summary. I LOVE reports that can be easily customized with graphs and numbers. I needed to see in black and white (or color) that we were spending XYZ on eating out or clothing. Now, I didn't purchase an application that let me print off replica bills (though that would have been awesome) but I did shop around.


Here are the products I sampled in order to make my decision:
1. Paperless by Mariner (Regular price $50, got it for $25 from NEW Apple App Store)
Now initially I wanted something that I could combine both my receipts, documents and transactions into one giant lump. I found that this wasn't going to be possible. Keeping the receipts separate from the documents was critical. I will have at least 20 to 1 over documents any day. Even more so, I would have more transactions as I do not save a physical receipt for every purchase (i.e. Amazon).
Paperless is an amazing product to manage my receipt and document collection. It keeps them both independent of each other. I can customize the categories and even save, email or print with a click of a button. Sounds great, but this didn't satisfy the need to get my money in order.

2. SEE Finance
Off the bat I loved the way this software looked. It had an inviting feel, and welcomed minimal customization. I tried this product for free when I downloaded it from CNET (I downloaded the trial before I did the OS upgrade, so I got the old version). I was able to add and remove categories without much trouble, and I was able to control the imports and where they posted. 


The Reports looked great and it was easy to import transactions from the web (i.e. Bank of America, American Express). I could add multiple accounts with ease AND see the balances of each without having to click on each one. I loved this because I usually bounce back and forth.


Also, there is really no need to purchase the full version because the only trial fault is that you have to look at the welcome screen/verbiage for a few seconds. I could live with that for FREE usage! 

And then finally...


3. Money3
Since this product was strongly sponsored by Apple, I trusted their judgement. Also, for the price and the high reviews, I expected a decent product. I was SO disappointment when I really got involved with it. To start, there are a few features that I just couldn't stand: 

• I added and removed categories (I don't have an IRA nor would I need to track it's interest) but was unable to change the 'image' associated to it. The standard categories came with out-of-the-box images, but since I exported/imported from the SEE Finance product, it copied over the categories that I used there. I was NOT able to put back the images after I deleted the default categories!! No Fun! This quickly turned me off...
• The reports made NO sense. I was looking at deposits, but it was adding up total transactions. It was even adding up all my transfers and deposits AND withdraws (simultaneously!)

Outcome:

Basically, I stuck with the Paperless and SEE Finance applications. They both were SUPER user friendly. I really love the fact that SEE Finance is free and that Paperless was half-price. I kick myself for buying the Money3 software, but it's times like this that I wish I could have saved money by just sticking with something that was working well! This is exactly the thing I need to improve on and stop - wasteful spending! Although using these two products have slightly helped me track my spending, I hope that it will eventually help improve my frivolousness over the next few months. 

Until next time...