MS Money Adjustments

I’ve been working on a 2008 Financial Year in Review to find out where the flaws all in my finances so I can fix them in 2009. In doing so I noticed an issue with how I categorize some expenses, mainly the ones with my father. I had put all of these expenses under his name, but then the “type” of expense I left as a normal category. For example, lets say his cellphone bill went under the generic “Bill: Cellular” category.

If I wanted to see how much I spent on cellular service for 2008, it would add his total in as well. I wasn’t able to separate the two out.

So I went back and created a new category called “Dads Expenses:” and then added new subcategories to cover his bills so it’s now listed as: “Payment to Edward XXXXXX, Dads Expenses: Cellular”. That keeps it completely out of my financial totals, and will also now let me see how much I’ve spent on his expenses. The total in the last 3 years was over $16.5k that I’ve given him, and now I have a better idea of how much I give him for certain things.

Now to finish going over my own categories for my financial year in review.