Where Did Your Money Go?
Tracking Your Money Down
Earn More Or Spend Less
Have you ever felt as if you can’t seem to make enough money to keep up? You tell yourself that if you just earned a little more money, you would be able to catch up on your bills? Too bad life doesn’t work that way. Most people don’t have a generous boss who gives them a raise whenever their bills pile up.
Since the overspending is your responsibility not your bosses, it’s your responsibility to manage it. When you cannot earn more to offset your overspending, you only have one option, spend less than what you earn.
Spend Less|Track It
The first step towards spending less is to track your current spending. You won’t know where your money is going unless you take the time to write down every time you spend money. You need to track your credit card purchases, your online purchases, your cash purchases from your ATM withdrawals.
It’s Your Money|Track It
Here are everyday expenses that your money may be going towards without you even realizing it. By tracking your expense you may even be able to save money.
Mortgage or Rent
This expenses is necessary – you need to live somewhere; however, you still need to include it in your expenses tracker.
Utilities
Write down your telephone, gas, electric and water expenses. Find the ways you are wasting money on your utilities. For example, the constant running of the air conditioner even on semi-hot days; keeping the lights on in rooms you are not even in.
Insurance
Do you know how much you pay for insurance? You must have auto and home insurance, it’s a necessary evil. Shop your premiums, you may be surprised how much you could be overpaying. If you are on a monthly pay plan, you are paying more than if you pay every 6 months or once a year.
Children
Do your children go to day care – if so, this needs to be tracked. You want the very best day care for your children, so you may not want to shop the prices on this expense.
Do you send your children to summer camp when they get older, track that.
The cost of college. Are you saving for your child’s college education; track it.
Fun things with your children are a must; but do you have to buy the extra’s too? For example, going to the movie theater is costly so don’t increase the expenses by buying popcorn and soda too. Track it all, the movie tickets and the treats. You have to write down these expenses if you want the most accurate picture of where your money is going.
Miscellaneous Expenses
Everyone has miscellaneous expenses; these are the ones we most often forget to track. If you have a pet, a visit to the veterinarian a few times a year seems meaningless to track. You or your family go for haircuts every few months doesn’t seem like a big expense so you ignore it.
The purpose of tracking your expenses is not to pinpoint the big expenses; it’s to monitor your own spending habits. So write every single thing down, regardless of how big or small the expense is.
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