The great thing about Money Dashboard is not only can you see where your money is going, you can also compare how you're spending your money against how you think you should be spending your money.
Follow these simple steps for setting a budget and start seeing where your money is really going:
Step 1. Add your accounts
When you add your accounts, not only will Money Dashboard load your account balances but will also load your most recent transactions, as these transactions come through Money Dashboard will automatically try to group or add a tag to each of your transactions. So whether you buy your groceries from Tesco, Lidl, or any other supermarket, Money Dashboard will try to group all your supermarket shopping into one group called groceries.
Step 2. Tag your transactions
For any of your transactions which have not been automatically tagged, use the tagging tool in the Tag Transactions screen, to group similar spend. Don't forget it's not until you have grouped your spending that you can really start to see how you're spending your money.
Step 3. Review your spending
Once you've managed to group your spending then you can clearly start to see how much you're spending on groceries. Don't forget, it's not just the trips to the supermarket (online or in the car) but it's also those trips to the local corner shop.
Step 4. Set yourself a budget for groceries
After a quick review of your spending in the Transactions screen you can really start to see how much you're spending on food. Set your budget but don't forget, your budget should be realistic, set yourself an achievable budget and you can always make changes as the month goes by.
Step 5. Track your money
Regularly review how you're doing against your budget in the Track Spending screen. If the budget you have set is too high then lower it and allocate the difference to another budget or towards your savings. If it's too low then something else will have to give!
You can adjust your budget at any point throughout the calendar month but at the end of the month the budget is fixed. Your historical budgets can be viewed in the Track Spending panel but they can't be changed.
Follow these few simple steps today for setting a budget and start getting your groceries spending under control.
mySupermarket.com
One way to lower those grocery bills is to do your online shopping with mySupermarket. mySupermarket is a completely free website which allows you to compare supermarket prices, as you shop in the top retailers in the UK, and get the best possible deal for your shopping.
