How To Track Your Spending

Tired of trying to keep up with your spending day after day? Well I’m here to tell you there is an easier way – actually three different ways. You can easily find a system to automate tracking your spending that will fit your family and your needs.

The one piece of advice that I love to give to families learning new budgeting techniques –

Stop trying to be perfect.

We are all human and we will never be perfect 100% of the time.

And that’s okay! What we should be striving for is progress, not perfection.

Cash Envelope Method

Track your spending by creating a self-imposed budget for yourself. I’ve mentioned cash envelope budgeting before and it’s probably the easiest budgeting method out there. You set your budget for the month and then either weekly or every two weeks you withdrawal the cash from your account. You place the right amount of cash for each category in the right category and there you have it.

Once you run out of cash that’s it. So there is no need to track your spending manually – the amount of cash you have left is the amount in your budget.

Easier Cash Envelope Method

If you get tired of making trip after trip to the bank then you could always give the easier cash envelope method a try. The first step is to open multiple accounts at your bank – for your budget categories that you need, like gas, groceries, eating out, misc. You can transfer your budgeted amounts into their specific accounts and then use debit cards instead of cash. A great tip is still use envelopes to hold your receipts and you can easily keep track of your spending through out the month.

Check Register

Another option that will help automate tracking your spending, whether you use cash or a debit card is to keep track on a check register. You can use one in Excel or in Google Drive that will automatically calculate your bank balance. Having it on your Google Drive is really simple, just create the spreadsheet or purchase this one that’s over in the shop and then open it in Google Sheets. Now you can have access to it anywhere, anytime. It’s perfect.

The best part about these methods? You can easily switch between these three methods are make a combination all your own.

Take it from someone who has tried each of these methods and actively goes back and forth between them. Sometimes when you find yourself spending a little impulsively then it’s nice to be able to switch back to a cash envelope method and then when things are running smooth you can use a combination of a check register and the easier cash envelope method.