Tracking Spending Habits

[snafu]

Nalidixic, what is the goal? what is the purpose of tracking your spending? Are you trying to get better control, reduce spending, generate more savings or??? Is there a purpose to knowing how much you paid for a haircut or cup of coffee in Feb. 2012? Will you use broad categories like Mortgage: interest/principal, Food: groceries/restaurant, Utilities: electric/heat/water/ phone/cable/netflix/internet/trash, Auto: Loan/interest/principal/operations/maintenance, Personal: grooming/OTC meds, Entertaiment and sub categories you enjoy.


Often people who begin tracking every expenditure wish to set parameters for cash flow or are in a new stage or location. I suspect many don't stay with the effort making the initial effort pointless.

[YLTL_Dan]

You could simply stick $50/$100/$300 (whatever amount works for you) as "walking around money" for the week (say, Sunday through Saturday). Then reload with the same amount the following Sunday. Just figure that $50/$100/$300 (again, whatever works for you) is for your cash purchases: daily coffee, lunches, gas, dry cleaning, happy hour, quick grocery hit, etc.

I use a system similar to this - a monthly cash budget (ie, Dave Ramsey envelope system). You should really track your spending before you try this so you understand where your money is going, but a cash budget helps you understand how much you are spending. You can estimate for the first month (100 in 'coffee' envelope, 300 in 'going out to eat', etc). Also, I wrote about the cash budget system and some of my readers had some great tips, including:


Submitted by Kyle on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 11:27pm. I completed the Dave Ramsey study and it tremendously helped out. Regarding the cash envelope system; I never would use cash and put it in the envelopes. Instead, I would go to a local convenient store and buy visa gift cards with the amounts for each category.

I found that this method made it easier for me to stay on track with the program and was less likely to just go and withdrawal more cash if needed.

Submitted by Elizabeth on Sat, 01/28/2012 - 9:54am.

I found an Android app called "Simple Budget" and used it for my Christmas spending. I added up the money I had saved through the year for Christmas and allocated it to different envelopes....one for each of my 3 kids, one for business clients, one for relatives, and one for any other people I wanted to give gifts to. Then each time I would purchase an item (I am a dedicated debit card user), I would enter that amount from the appropriate envelope. When the money in the app's envelope was gone, the shopping for that person was finished! It worked great for me and I didn't have to actually carry around cash.

[LuckyRobin]

I get a receipt for everything I buy and put it in a little basket if I don't have time to deal with it daily. Then every two to three days I record the receipts. But daily recording is better.

[gogirlanime]

For years I still use the paper pencil method I find it the easiest. You just have to train yourself to remember. It took a month or so but I finally got it down. Same thing with my coupon habits it took me a while to remember to take my binder with me every time I go shopping for something or go to the mall or something where I might buy random stuff. It's always worth it to take it with me to the mall/drug store/grocery store I've saved about $700 since October 2011 on coupons alone.

[boefixepa]

For real time tracking to an envelope budgeting take a look at Mvelopes. It has an inital set up time where you have to imput all the accounts. And you have to learn their system. But once it is all set up it pulls all of your transactions daily from your checking, credit cards, etc. and then you just "drop" the transaction into the budget envelope. It's pretty much real time. Maybe a 24 hr delay for the transactions to be cleared, but I've used it for over 5 years now and I love it. I would never do it any other way. It keeps it all organized for me. There is also a cost associated with it, but it's less then $10 a month. After being a memeber for a few years they let you buy a life time membership, so it no longer costs me anything....for life. It's a good 'envelope' type budget system. It's online, so you can get at it from anywhere, even your phone. Check it out... it may be what you are looking for.
Money Management | Home Budgets & Household Budget | Online Budget | Money Management Software

[minerva]

I like to keep track of my spending habits by tracking them in bigger categories than per purchase. I have a eating out, groceries, and personal spending categories, to name a few. I've been doing this for at least the last 4 years. At the beginning I did track my (and my family's spending) as close to the penny as possible for a couple of months. My spouse sometimes forgot to keep the receipts . It all worked out well.

Minerva