Track Your Spending
You can have the best budget ever, but if you haven’t decided how you’re going to track what you spend, then all you have is a plan and no action.
To figure out how to track your spending, start with a simple question: how do I spend money? Debit card? Checks? Cash? Credit cards? How you spend will determine how you track your spending. If you use a lot of cash, you’ll need a system to keep track of your receipts. Write a lot of checks? Better keep your checkbook register up to date!
Want some good news? The easiest way to track your spending is already available FOR FREE: online banking! Make your debit card your primary you spend and set up your recurring bills with bill pay in online banking and everything you need to track your spending will be in one secure, convenient space.
Let’s say you budgeted $25 for eating out for the week. Grab your calculator, log-in to online banking and scroll through your purchases, adding up the totals from every restaurant or fast food place you see. If the total is under $25, congrats! You stuck to your budget! If not, it’s time to decrease your budget for the next week or decrease another category to make up for it…or risk coming to the end of the month without enough money.
Where are you going to keep track? A spreadsheet like this one is incredibly easy to set-up and FREE! There are also free apps available that will help you track your spending, just make sure you’re dealing with a secure vendor, especially if you give the app access to your accounts.
Consistency is key! If you don’t want to make tracking your spending a daily task, then pick 2-3 days a week and commit to diving into online banking on those days and make sure you’re hitting your budget goals!
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