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MONEY
2020 TM
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A Dozen Ways to Track Spending
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Keep all sales receipts and create notes to record payments made without receipts. We often use a PEACH can with audiences -- (a Perfectly Easy Accounting Can for your Home). Cut a slot in the plastic lid of a coffee can and drop receipts in it -- then tally spending each time you get a paycheck. A shoe box or desk or kitchen drawer is also fine for the same
purpose. Sort receipts and notes by expense category. Then regularly total amounts of what has been spent in a category to determine how much is needed in that category each week, or whether spending could or should be reduced.
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Keep an account book by expense categories. Some people love doing this, but most do not!
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Envelopes or folders: Use envelopes for each category of expenses with an amount of money allocated for expenses for a set period of time, like a month. Record dollar amounts on the outside of the envelope. Use different time periods for different types of expenditures. This works well with persons who are concrete rather than abstract thinkers. It helps to see how you trade off one expenditure against
another.
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Pay all bills by check and keep running tallies of how much is left in the allocation for each category. This takes a record system in the checkbook. Since it often seems that only particular categories of expenses are the problem, you could monitor only the categories that cause the problems.
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"Sticky notes" can be posted on credit cards with a notation of maximum amounts that can be charged on that card. Subtract amounts of expenditures added to the card as you make purchases.
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An informal method used by some is to use a balance in the check book as a guide to patterns of expenses. If the balance drops below a particular amount, it is an alert to potential problems.
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Use a budget partner for problems that seem to be spending addictions. Establish a household rule that the expense has to be verbally justified to the budget partner before any expenditure on those
items can be made. The budget partner's role is to ask questions to bring greater understanding of consequences or triggers of the expenditure rather than telling the person what to do.
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Use a calendar with large spaces to write both when pay is received and when expenses occur to determine a match or mismatch between income and expenses. What appears to be "extra money" may not be! The calendar may also be used to plan for larger irregular expenses. How much needs to be saved regularly so these can be paid in a timely fashion? Sometimes it helps to shift when certain expenses (such as insurance) are due.
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Keep a log of "financial emergencies" for a few weeks to determine what they are, what triggers them, and then think of ways to avoid them.
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Use the MONEY 2020 TM Workbook pages to record all income and expenses on a daily basis.
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Computer software: Purchase inexpensive software designed for electronic recordkeeping. Be sure to back up your records frequently.
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Carry a small notepad in your purse, car or pocket to jot down spending.
