When I first started using Microsoft money to track my finances I made a separate category for EVERYTHING. I would enter bread from a receipt under Food:bread and milk under Food:milk and broccoli under Food:vegetables.
Then I realized this was taking way too long (plus honey almost passed out laughing when I told him what I was doing) so I stopped.
This year, in an effort to control my spending I have decided to start doing it again. I already have all the categories set up for everything I spend money on and I keep ALL of my receipts. Plus, this semester I will have a A LOT more free time than I did last semester.
That way I can see exactly how much I spent on bread for the month….should I ever need to have that amount of detailed information on hand. Not likely…….but I don’t see it taking up too much of my time since I will not be going shopping as often as I used to.
I think maybe you have overcomplicated things. Do you need to know every single item or just how much you are spending on groceries all together?
Yes I did overcomplicate things when first started. I have since streamlined my budgets to have less categories.