Keeping Track!

It’s the end of the month, and you’ve finally sat down to pay those bills that have sat quietly on your desk, waiting for you to care for them.  It’s then, that you work on writing the check for the $200+ electric bill, and the should-never-have-been-that-high cell phone bill, when you place your head in your hands wondering where all of your money went.  You know that when you started the month, you had plenty of money to cover the standard bills that would come your way, along with taking care of a few extras along the way, but now that D-Day has arrived, it seems that the money has vanished.  Unfortunately you have just found yourself buried in a case of the “missing money!”

One of the best tips that we were ever given, upon being married, was to keep track of all of our money.  In an effort to manage our family finances with expertise (and knowing that I had no idea what I was doing!) I found myself at our local library in the first month we were married, taking a class on how to manage your finances.  Honestly, I don’t remember much of what was said in that hour-long class, but the one thing I do remember is that the lady kept emphasizing the importance of keeping-track of what you spend.  She talked about the importance of developing a budget, but being sure to base your figures on actual expenses, rather than estimated costs. 

So we did just that.  Every single time that debit card was swiped, or cash left our hand, we asked for a receipt.  Every…single…time, for an entire month!  You would have thought it was snowing in our tiny apartment, because of all of the receipts we had floating around.  BUT, at the end of the month, I sat down and organized all of the receipts based on the type of expense they were.  Groceries.  Eating Out.  School supplies, etc.  Once I organized all of the receipts, I added up their totals, and put those totals into a spreadsheet I created on our computer, listed by category.  When Steve got home, we sat down and looked through all of our expenses, and developed a budget based on what had spent. 

For example, if we saw that we spent $200 on eating out, we pulled out a calendar and looked at all of the times throughout the next month that we would be eating out.  Then, we developed a budget that we thought we could stick to.   (For instance, we gave Steve $12.50 a week to spend on his lunches.  That meant that if he decided to drink a coke and eat sushi one day, totaling $12.00, then he would starve the rest of the week, or eat Ramen Noodles purchased with his remaining 50 cents!)

One of our goals was to save enough money to put a down payment on our first house, which meant that we couldn’t spend every dime that we brought home from our jobs.  So, we had to cut in some of our other spending areas, and sometimes get creative in how we functioned day-to-day.

So, how does this translate to your own family budget?  I’d encourage you to do the same.  Developing your own family budget, based on ACTUAL expenses, and not estimated costs.  That means that you too, need to have a flurry of receipts in your home, collecting over the course of a month (or two!), so that you can see how much you truly spend on various things.  Based on the figures you’ll compile, you can develop a budget that you’re able to stick to, and hopefully accomplish those financial goals you’re striving for!

I believe in you!  Good luck!