Tracking your spending for even one week is a big accomplishment! A lot of people find they’re spending a lot more than they realized—often on things they don’t really care about. Chances are, you’ll get inspired to change some of your habits so you can meet the goals that are most important to you.
So what will you use all this info for? Here are just a few ideas:
- Work on spending less in certain categories.
- Compare each month to the one before.
- Encourage yourself by tracking your progress.
- Check up on how your plan is working out.
At first you might want to do a weekly review of your spending and any goals you’ve set. Once you get into a routine, you could do it monthly and still be confident that your new habit of writing everything down will keep you on track in between reviews.
Here’s what a check-up might look like:
- Put each transaction into a category if you haven’t already.
- Add up each category and compare to your previous spending.
- Take note of any expenses that happen repeatedly, and start to plan for them so you aren’t taken by surprise.
And remember-even if facing up to your spending is painful at first, before too long you’ll be glad you did.