I tracked my spending for the month of October for a few reasons. My primary purpose is to establish a baseline of adlib spending to see where my money goes when I’m not consciously limiting anything I buy. In the coming months, I’m going to deliberately cut my spending in a few categories – for example, in a future month, I’m going to have a “grocery spending fast” where I don’t spend any money at all in the grocery category. I have an overstuffed pantry and freezer given that there’s only 2-3 people in my household.
In December, I want to have a “spending fast” month where I don’t spend any money at all except that which is necessary for work (ie. parking and gas). That means I’ll have to buy my Christmas presents early!
The main reason why most people generally track their spending is because they literally have “more month than money”.
That’s not the reason I’m doing it.
I’m going on a spending fast to test my resourcefulness. I believe there’s probably a world of difference between limiting your spending because you want to vs. limiting your spending because you have to.
I’ve done this kind of detailed tracking in the past when I’ve been trying to survive the month without starving and also when I’ve been trying to save as much as possible and determine exactly where my spending brought me happiness or satisfaction vs. just spending out of habit.
So, here’s how I tracked my spending in October:
Take a 3×5 post-it note, write the days of the week on the rows. Make a few columns – about 7 should do, and write the major categories of your normal spending at the top of the columns. Have a wider column for the miscellaneous category where you can list what the expense was for. Every time you bring your wallet out, write down what you spent. You may think you’ll remember the amount when you get home or get to your car – but trust me on this – you won’t.
Then at the end of the month, go through your bank statements and credit card statements to ensure that you’ve picked up every automatic transaction. Throw it all into an excel spreadsheet and you’re done in 15 minutes.
This month (November), I’m tracking again, but doing it in the month at a glance section of my daytimer. By today’s date, almost half way through the month, my cash and visa non-automatic spending is at $430. The target amount to stay on track for this for November is $1000, so I’m pretty much right on target.
