Track Your Spending

Tuesday, 3 February 2009 11:35 by Jacki

One of the first steps to help you start saving is to track your actual spending for a month. You’d be surprised at how the little things add up. This will help you make adjustments in certain areas.

Keep a journal with you or refer to your monthly account statement. Separate your expenditures into different categories like: Mortgage, Cable, Utilities, Entertainment, Groceries, Dining Out, etc. There’s software you can buy that can help you with this as well like Quicken. Once you determine how much you have spent in each category, it’s time to see if anything stands out or if there’s anything you think you can cut back on. Usually people find the Dining Out and Entertainment categories to be more than they expected. Those $10 lunches and $40 dinners really add up over a month.

It’s also important to do this exercise on a regular basis to make sure you aren’t going back to your old habits.

Good luck and keep saving!

Tags:		saving money, track spending, savings tips
Categories:		Saving
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Comments

February 12. 2009 06:40

If I pay for something out of our checking, after I record the amount, I round up to the next dollar and circle the amount in red next to the entry. Once a week, I add all the red circles up and transfer the amount to savings. I don't even miss it and it adds up fast!

Shelly

February 12. 2009 09:18

Something very similar to that concept is FORUM's CommonCents account that allows you to save your change with every debit card transaction you make. Designate a specific amount of change (choose from $.01 to $1) from your checking to go into your CommonCents account for every signature based debit card transaction you make (Ex. If you choose $.50 for each debit card transaction you make and you have 40 debit card transactions in one month, your savings would be $20).

Jacki

February 16. 2009 13:43

Jacki, you mention Quicken as a great software to help folks keep track of spending. That program is great, but especially for IBM/PC users. If you use Macintosh you can get a 2007 version of Quicken for Mac, but if you want something that also includes a budgeting tool and is specifically designed for Mac computers, I recommend iBank. We just bought it at Office Max for $59.99 at the beginning of January, and it has been very helpful. It's very easy to use and it is so convenient to have all of your accounts in one place. I do most of the accounting in our household and I got tired of having different books for checking accounts, savings, santa savings, weekly 5, etc. This helps me consolidate and limits my confusion.

If you do your budgeting on your computer be sure to keep a back up file, though. If your computer were to crash there is a chance you could lose everything. And that's very frustrating. Back up your files at least once a week.

Amanda M.T.

February 18. 2009 08:25

I've always said, " I'd hate to think , what I spend on dining out". Since this challenge, I have started looking to see the actual amount being spent. I am more than shocked. I followed the advice of cutting that out at least once a week. Not only will it save me money, but there is also a bit of a health benefit. I know that I eat better foods while eating at home. This is a wonderful challenge and helpful in many ways!

Tammy Cropper