While a program like Money could be used for this (and
you would only need the lowest cost version), it still
would be overkill for your purposes. I would suggest you
design a simple spreadsheet with the columns Date, cost,
payee, Category etc. to keep track of the project costs.

..
- quote -

I have windows XP Home with standard programs. I wish to
build a house, mostly by me. How can I keep track of my
costs, hopefully using a system that will keep a running
total of individual categories, such as framing,
electrical, plumbing, taxes, etc etc. Thank you, new to
financial computing.