A few years ago I bought Quicken in an effort to better track my spending and create a budget to save some money. I barely used it once I updated my account information. It was just too much and to be honest I didn’t really find it too user friendly.

Years – and thousands of dollars deeper in debt – later I again decided to try some money management software. This time it was Microsoft Money Deluxe. I’ve been giving it some tries, but again I’m not finding it the easiest thing to work with.

I think I would like and really benefit from a program like this – you can only do so much from a spreadsheet. Am I just not getting it? Has anyone else experienced headaches with these programs?

I think I’m most interested in the debt reduction plan, cash flow analyzer and seeing my spending in a birds-eye view so I can see what I can cut back on and what I need to re-assess.