Fortunately, it’s an easy thing to do with the right software. Unless you have more money than you need or want, tracking how and where you spend your money is essential. It syncs up seamlessly with my home computer and my husband’s phone. I love that I can take a few seconds to enter a purchase rather than having a pile of entries to make later on in the week. We use the YNAB smart-phone apps (see below) when we’re on the go to record any purchases right away.
It’s easy to keep track of bills with YNAB scheduled transactions. Most bills are on auto-pay – I have reminders in YNAB for these and approve them a couple times a week when I balance our accounts. My money management choice for the last 3 years has been an application called You Need a Budget (YNAB). If you manage to get through one month, you’ll lose momentum shortly thereafter if it’s not a more frequent habit.Įntering purchases daily or every few days using whatever system you choose is much easier to maintain than waiting until month end.You’ll probably lose a good portion of your receipts.When you sit down to do it, there are so many receipts, tallying them is way too much of a chore.I have two words for this option: bad idea! Please do not think you can hang on to receipts and random notes to yourself and use this to keep track of your expenses!Ĭall me a budgeting bully, but if you try to do this, I promise you, you will do one of the following: One more option: keep your receipts and tally them up at the end of the month. cash envelope system This won’t really tell you specifically where you’re spending your money, but it will easily tell you how much goes to each category.
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Not that I would ever do that… When deciding how to track your expenses, you have several options: Maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised by your frugality at the grocery store, but you discover you’re wasting an extra $30 a month in library fees. How can you resolve to attack that cell phone bill or switch to a lower rate credit card if you don’t know how much you’re spending there in the first place?
If you’re interested in making your money stretch farther (and who isn’t?), you’ve first got to know what you’re doing with it before you can make any real improvements. What is the key reason to track your spending?īe brave. Everyone (and I mean everyone) should be tracking where their money goes. That’s why I’m writing today to encourage, no urge, you to take this one step (if you don’t already). I blog a lot about household stuff – laundry, chores, how I try to be a good mom – but one of my favorite things to talk about is money and how to manage it. Note: this post contains affiliate links.