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Monday Night Finance- Volume 15

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Monday, 25 May 2020 / Published in Monday Night Finance, Uncategorized

Monday Night Finance- Volume 15

Happy Memorial Day! Here are three posts we enjoyed this past week.

69 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half

We all need to eat. Grocery spending represents one of most American’s biggest expenses. Grocery spending is relatively easy to change as it is necessary to continually go to the grocery store. In contrast, bigger expenses, like mortgages, transportation, and health insurance are difficult to change in a short period of time. Therefore your grocery budget represents an area of your budget that is both easy to change and big enough to make an appreciable difference in your spending habits. In this article, Jo from MoreMoneyTips.com shares 69 different ways to slash your grocery budget.

You may not be getting your best deals at supermarkets. These places give you the convenience of a one stop shop but can cost you more in grocery bills. ~MoreMoneyTips.com

We are all looking for the holy grail of reducing grocery spending; that is, can we change just one thing and magically save money? However, Jo lays out 69 small tips, each of which may cut your grocery bill slightly. By combining all of these small savings, you can start to achieve a meaningful reduction in your grocery budget. For instance, Jo recommends not buying your fresh fruits and vegetables at the supermarket as they can often be found cheaper at farmers markets. Likewise, buying fruits and vegetables in season and preserving them can be much cheaper than buying out of season produce. Additional tips involve buying cheaper cuts of meat and cooking them in a slow cooker or pressure cooker to tenderize them. It can also be cheaper to eat vegetarian, so by reducing meat consumption you can save money. For even more tips, check out the article.

Dashboard Confessional: KPIs for Solopreneurs

Are you thinking of starting your own business? Have you just started one and are hoping to grow it the most efficient way possible? Or perhaps you’re a seasoned solopreneur or contractor looking to get an edge. If so, then this article from Shelley at BeyondPennies.com is for you.

In this KPI guide for solopreneurs, we take a closer look at major categories of KPIs, TRAM protocol, and how to build two types of KPI dashboards for solopreneurs. ~BeyondPennies.com

In this article, Shelley describes how to use key performance indicators (or KPIs) to help your business grow. The article begins with a definition of KPIs. For example if you have a website, a KPI for you might be the number of page views or click through rate. Shelley suggests using the TRAM protocol to choose KPIs. The TRAM protocol stands for Timely, Relevant, Actionable, and Measurable. The article goes into much more depth about why each one of these properties are important in selecting KPIs. After presenting the TRAM method, Shelley shares an example of what a KPI dashboard might look like. This template could be customized to your own business plan. If this sounds interesting, check out the article, which includes a downloadable template for your own KPIs.

The -ism We Don’t Talk About, But Should

2020 has seen an unprecedented explosion in unemployment. It’s likely that you know someone who was laid off, or perhaps you were in charge of layoffs at your own firm. Who were the first people let go? Were they young employees with lots of promise and a family to support? Or were the first people let go in their 50s or 60s? In this article, Katie from AlongTheCamelRide discusses her experiences with ageism and layoffs.

We spend an inordinate amount of time arguing about countless -isms: sexism, racism, misogynism, capitalism, socialism, fascism, globalism. Sometimes these terms are misapplied or they’re used to incite anger and to pit people against one another. But it seems we’re ignoring one of the biggest -isms in our culture: ageism. ~AlongTheCamelRide.com

Katie starts the article with an anecdote about an acquaintance who was in his early 60s and recently laid off. He had originally planned on working at least two more years. This acquaintance doesn’t have enough money to fully retire, and it will be difficult for him to find a job at his age. Don’t we all know someone with a similar story? While we can all set a course for a secure retirement, we may be forced to retire much earlier than we had planned. The article is personal, and touches on Katie’s own retirement plans. At the same time, the article really forces us to confront our own biases about aging and retirement. How might we face the loss of a profession before we’re ready to leave? Is age the best way to measure the worth of our coworkers? If you haven’t given much thought to the end of your career, this article is definitely worth a read.

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Barbara Ann Feeney
16-05-2016

I switched from pencil and paper on grid accounting paper, then to a Google spreadsheet, then to CountAbout. Really happy with how this app makes it easy to track how I doing, staying (or not) on budget.

 
‏@davepurcell
15-11-2016

I rarely tweet endorsements, but -- after years of using/hating Quicken, Countabout is awesome for tracking home budget/finances. Thx!

 
David M.
16-07-2016

CountAbout is as easy to use on my mobile as it is on the desktop and it provides me with the same or better information than Quicken.

 
Nate E.
05-02-2016

Fantastic! I finally found a great replacement for Quicken! CountAbout is entirely cloud-based, so you can access it from whatever OS you happen to be using. And the mobile app isn't hamstrung like Quicken's. No looking back for me, this is a great app and a great service!

 
My Bank Tracker
24-11-2016

...you won’t be bombarded with ads when you log in. Mint, for example, uses targeted ads to help keep the platform free. All in all, CountAbout could be a good choice for Quicken and Mint users who want to start fresh with their finances without losing their past transaction history.

 
Mark Goldfarb
20-01-2017

I love the software – nice and clean – the categories was a must have that your competitors are lacking.

 
Widgets to Compare Monthly Spending in Active Categories
17-02-2017

Huzzah! I can add widgets now and already made one to compare my monthly spending in my active categories to my budget. Excellent. That tool is one of my favorite features in a personal finance product.

 
Shirley Hou
CountAbout was Perfect
15-03-2017

I was looking for finance software to use as treasurer of the parent-teacher association at my child's school. CountAbout was perfect - it had all the register features and download capabilities that I was familiar with from desktop Quicken, but it has the advantage of being in the cloud so I can use it from any computer.

 
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Steve P.
22-09-2017

My search for a cloud-based alternative to Quicken is over! Very easy to transfer my Quicken data and customize my account. Thank you CountAbout!

 
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Jim Powell
17-03-2018

Vastly superior to the execrable Quicken, which caused me to have to choose a new bank password every time I used it. CA is fast, simple, and all you need unless you have a complicated investment portfolio. Its almost fun!

 
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Jeffrey Wilk
02-04-2018

Great product and great customer service. Thanks!

 
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Nancy
10-08-2018

I love CountAbout! I have hated Quicken for years, but didn't have an alternative. Now I do! I love that the cost is only $9.99 per year for the basic service (which is all I need). You can upgrade for more features, if you need them. But for personal use, the basic plan is just fine. When I found CountAbout, I gleefully gave Quicken the boot and I haven't looked back or missed it at all. Bye bye Quicken!!!

 
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Dana Linder
29-03-2019

This is an incredibly well thought out program.

It imports QIF files perfectly. I tried a number that failed miserably.

It has a function that emails reminders about scheduled transactions. That is an extremely useful function that I hadn't seen anywhere.

Tech support is second to none. All my questions were answered in detail within hours (sometimes minutes).

The companion phone app is very simple. You can browse, search, enter transactions and see scheduled transaction. That's really all you need on the phone.

It's one failing for me is that I have a transaction that I have a transaction that occurs on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and it's not possible to set that up. It's easy enough for me to change the date of next transaction when I enter the current one.

I am extremely impressed with the company. The trial is free for 15 days. You have nothing to lose.

 
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Keith Hurst
22-05-2020

I've been trying to ditch Quicken for years, finally a worthy replacement, but it's so much more, so clean and intuitively designed. I was really surprised and delighted to find a full featured iphone app that meets all my needs.

 
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Amanda Sherlock
25-08-2020

I started using Quicken in 1987, before I had my own PC. I continued using it for years, frustrated by the frequent breaks in the synchronization. Finally I took the leap and used Mint for a year or two. Free software is worth as much as I pay for. Finally, in 2019 I found Countabout. The synchronization is great and I am happy to have a product that's easy to use and reliable. The customer support is excellent and very responsive to my questions.
There aren't as many bells and whistles as Quicken but the simplicity outweighs the complications.

 
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Richard Luna
03-02-2021

I'm a one-person real estate brokerage and having accurate financial records and being able to easily search transactions and generate reports is crucial. I'd been using Quicken for Mac for 10+ years and wanted to migrate to using a Chromebook instead of a Mac, to do that I had to find a replacement for Quicken.

The replacement had to be online; available from my phone, tablet, etc., and no software installations almost every year. I immediately dismissed any 'free' financial software (Mint, etc.) - I believe that you get what you pay for and there is no such thing as 'free.'

I settled on Tiller and CountAbout and subscribed to both; I quickly decided that a spreadsheet is not what I wanted. I wanted something that worked a lot like Quicken and CountAbout fit the bill. It took me awhile to fully embrace it but once I did I've been very happy and would not go back to Quicken even if they offered a fully online version. The few times I've had a question about using CountAbout I've always gotten a response by the end of the day - and often in an hour or less. If feels like I'm working with a small enterprise that's interested in putting out a superior application, improving it and solving issues and responding to questions. I'm very satisfied!

 

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CountAbout® is an easy-to-use online personal finance application that imports data from Quicken and Mint and automatically downloads data from banking, credit card, and retirement accounts. With no software to install, we’re anywhere you have an Internet connection. Our platform is stable, secure, and totally private. Our dedicated customer service team is friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to respond.

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