Money Smarts 01/11/2010
 
Tracking my spending is the most helpful way to stay on top of my finances. There's something about writing things down and keeping track on paper.  I keep a little basket to drop any receipts in for logging that evening. It's so easy to forget about an expenditure.
 
It has become a game to log every single expenditure every day. The income gets logged too.  I have a chart which I make 12 copies each January to make my daily entries. It's all categorized....even "animal expense" is there. The most fun is at the end of the month, to add it all up and see how the in's and out's went. Do I have a profit or a loss for the month? If there's a loss, I just pull back on one of the spending colums the next month, or take on an extra shift at work.

The bottom line is that I always have a handle of where the hard-earned money is going. Some people don't even know how much they need to make in order to keep their lifestyle going. On the "Simple Budget" page, there's a link for Suzie Orman's interactive tracking worksheet. What other tips and tricks do you have to share?
 


Comments

kathy

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:45:12

barb, you're absolutely dead-on about the tracking. it's an essential tool. my father kept little 'financial journals' in which he logged every cent. it's amazing. you forget by the end of the day what you may have spent. it's a real eye-opener. we used to kid my father about it...like he was obsessing about money too much. the difference is he had some, and we didn't ! but we learned. the old adage of minding the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves is sooo verrry true.

another way of doing dad's journal is...my favorite. i do as much as possible with my discover card. it tracks for you. has a spending analyzer feature that breaks your bill down by category, e.g. supermarkets, gasoline, retail. (in a pie chart) also it can give a 2-yr breakdown by month so you can see when you may be spending/needing more money. obviously i would have to track cash expenditures with my own 2 little hands. but the added bonus of using discover is that i help my cash-flow. i only have to be sure i have the funds once a month rather than every time i swipe....and then there's the cash back or miles bonuses they give you. FREE. no annual fee for the card either.

another thing that has merit is the way some banks kick your 'change' into a savings account when you use their card. they round-up to the next dollar and put it in savings for you. a discipline you might never have otherwise.
or the old reliable method......
you can go down in the basement, and print more money whenever you need it !
(now if only i had a basement !)

 

Mary

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:31:03

I write down my expenditures too, and it really works miracles. It makes you aware of where your money is going. Do it! You will save a lot! Good info, thanks.

 

Elaine

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:41:58

We use Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that calculates everything for you. We have all the months for the whole year and then a Year To Date sheet as well. It really helps to stay on track with what's going out and what's coming in and where the problem areas of spending might be.
We used to buy our lunches at work once a week and we cut that out to save $40-$50 a month. We cut out hot lunch for Courtney at school as we found out she was eating junk instead of the actual hot lunch meal and now she makes her lunch and we save $45 a month. We also used to eat dinner out every weekend and we cut down to once a month and are saving $120 a month. It makes us prepare more in advance for the entire week and actually plan more new meals on a regular basis. Eating out has become more of a luxury, especially when you have 2 teenagers to feed.

 



Leave a Reply