When managing your money at home or online, often you may just use your online bank log in to check your balance, however this doesn’t give you a true reflection of your overall spending and what you have spend your money on. Because of this it is recommended to break down your spending into more usable categories, so you micro manage your spending more effectively. Without this detailed approach to your personal finances you will struggle to truly know how much you spend on a month by month basis.

The most obvious choice for managing your finances is the humble spreadsheet. By simply using a spreadsheet application like excel you can build a spreadsheet of spending and use the SUM feature to calculate your spend over time. If you don’t have Microsoft office installed on your PC, don’t worry you can use open office or Google docs to start your spreadsheet. Break down the spending into categories, such as Food, Entertainment, Bills and Rent/Mortgage. As you become more accustomed to using your spreadsheet you can make this more detailed over time.

Another nifty way to understand your personal finances is by using an online money management tool, for example Mint.com, Wesabe or for the UK users Kublax.com. The Kublax personal finance software for example, works by aggregating your banking transactions and filtering them into spending categories, so you know how much you have spent in that month, and more importantly – on what sort of things. These tools for managing your spending habits are also ideal for those wanting to save for a special occasion, as it help you plan your budgets more effectively.

Many of the online money management tools allow you a more flexible way of tracking your personal spending, as you only require an internet connection, rather than a local version of the budgeting spreadsheet, that you may need to take round on a pen drive. Luckily, with the rise of online tools like Mint and Kublax, personal finance management just got a whole lot easier.