Tracking Every Penny We Spend
Written by Mrs Money on September 23, 2009 – 6:05 pm -
Last October I decided I was going to participate in a “No Spend Month”. Needless to say, it didn’t go as well as I had hoped, and I spent $13,500 more than I had planned on spending. Um, yeah, I’d say we failed miserably. So after feeling like we’ve had unnecessary spending this month, I’m going to track every penny we spend for the month of October. I’m not going to limit myself to no spending, but I’m going to try to cut back and live on less for the month. The point of this experiment is to find out where our money is going and where we can be more disciplined. As I’ve shared before, I’m not the best budgeter.
I do know that I will be making some changes that I probably won’t be the happiest about.
-I will make my lunch every day and take it to work. I’m so bad about not grocery shopping and then we end up with no food in the house and I can’t pack a lunch. Then I go out to lunch and spend say, $7 and feel horrible about it because I know I shouldn’t be spending that money and should be putting it towards our car loan instead. I feel like I haven’t really felt the fire to pay the darn thing off, and I am so tired of that. I want to be out of debt SOON!
-Track all cash purchases by writing down on an envelope what I spend when I have cash. This way I can see if I bought something I really didn’t need.
-Develop a meal plan and stick to it. This is another thing I’m horrible about. When it’s just me at night, I tend to ‘graze’ and not make myself a real meal. Some nights my meal will be a glass of water with chia seeds. Weird-o. And then I get hungry later on in the evening and I’m like “I’m huungry, can you pick up some food?” when Mr. Money gets off work (after 9 PM usually) and that’s not good for our budget OR our waistlines.
Those are just a few things I’m going to try to do. Sometimes I feel like we’re doing pretty well, and other times I’m embarrassed that we’ve paid off over $36,000 of debt but we’ve never tried tracking every penny we spend.
So, there’s my plan. If anyone else is interested, that would be fantastic. I can use all the support I can get!
Have you ever tracked every penny you spend?
Posted in Budget | 12 Comments »
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I used to when I was in my twenties, I was fastidious about it. My grandma did her entire life. I have grown weary of tracking down to every penny. I do however, enter ever purchase into Quicken, so I have a pretty good idea of where a very large percentage of our money goes. I have tried to track less and it just drove me nuts not knowing. My favorite thing to do for lunch is to make extra at dinner and bring leftovers. Good luck on your goals!
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Mrs Money Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Thanks! I think at least it will be interesting. If I can save some money, I’ll be happy.
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September 24th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I also did this in my early 20’s when I was putting my (ex)hubby through college, working 3 jobs, yada yada yada. This is a terrific learning experience for sure, and a skill that is easily put to use again, as I found I needed when I took over our family’s finances from hubby #2 when in my mid-30’s. My son also used this when he first joined the workforce and had a huge amount of restitution to pay from an accident. I’d say the experience is worth the trouble even when things aren’t tight.
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Mrs Money Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Thanks!! That is awesome to have your encouragement. I think it will be a great learning experience at least. I am sure it will be eye opening.
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September 24th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
$13,000 in one month? That’s quite a month!
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Mrs Money Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I know! I was so mad when my car died. I’m hoping this October works out to be a much better month!
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September 24th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
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October 9th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I did the “track every penny” when I was fresh out of college. I HAD to. I worked at a job that I loved, but it paid me just above poverty level.
I did a lot to save money just to get by: Lived in the cheapest home I could afford, Walk or bike to work 6 months out of the year, buy foods in bulk, try to fire up my stove only twice a week and each time, fill every inch of space in that stove with different yummie dishes so that I had as much nutritous variety as possible with minimal expenditure of energy, kept the heat off until the pipes were just about to freeze, but not quite. Phew! But I won’t lie—it was hard. Very hard.
At the end of the month, I had $20 that did not have to go somewhere. That was my savings fund.
Ultimately, that got used for doctor visits, repairs when the car broke down, cat vaccinations, and (when I could swing it), donations to the church, or (occassionally) go to a movie. It would have been more fun to spend it on fun—but at least that strict living gave me a cushion when I needed it.
Now, I have a good solid budget. It isn’t quite so strict, however. I give myself a full $50.00 a month to spend on anything I want—-dinner out with my husband, a new sweater, a good used book, a few extra plants for the garden. I still track my pennies–and am true to my Dave Ramsey baby steps.
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Mrs Money Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I really like the idea of giving yourself $50 a month to do whatever you wish with it. I think I’ll try that. Part of the reason I hate budgeting is because I know there are going to be unexpected expenses, plus I feel so limited. Thanks for the tip!
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October 26th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
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