I track my expenses all the time because I input EVERYTHING into Microsoft money. I balance my checkbook after every transaction and I update and synchronize those figures both with Microsoft Money AND and excel spreadsheet. Overkill?
I do not carry cash so I do not have to bother with tracking that and when I pick up money on the street (floor, desk, etc. I do not record that because it just goes into the change container on the desk.
I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what I actually spend every day for the rest of this month so I will be doing daily posts on that. Most days I already know it will be a zero spending day because I do not buy lunch or anything like that.
I think I will ignore the regular bill payments because those are not anything that I can control right now. Rent will always be what it is and I cannot over or under pay it. The rest of the bills e.g. the credit cards and the loans are already set on a fixed schedule where I am using my debt snowball method to pay the balances down. I have been paying the minimum (plus $2) on all the credit cards and one loan and then I put whatever was left on the other loan….so I was paying more than the minimum on that one.
I will be knocking away at this one loan and then when it is done I will have that extra money to put towards the other debts. I have made it through January and February of this year doing this and I am feeling very positive about working on a clear goal instead of haphazardly paying bills in any order.
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