I have never been out of control financially, but I must say, I have also never been 100% financially conscious and on top of every detail. Essentially, what came in was always more than what went out, but I decided I wanted a much tighter control of the expenditures. To achieve this goal of detailed financial monitoring, I created myself some spreadsheets customized to my personal lifestyle.
I bought myself a tiny notebook and kept it with me at all times, recording each and every expenditure. I recorded even a cup of coffee.
At the end of the month I categorized all of my notebook entries into a category in my spreadsheets, this gave me totals spent by category. Tracking Phase: My variable expense categories were as follows: (tracked in notebook)
- House (incl. maid/ house items/ repairs/ gardener/ garden supplies)
- Personal/HBA
- Entertainment
- Food
- Car (repairs/ maintenance)
- Education
My fixed monthly expense categories were as follows:
- Mortgage (incl. Insurance & Taxes)
- Electric
- Gas (heat & hot water)
- Car insurance
- Cable
- Internet
- Phone
- Town (sewer & trash pick up)
- Donations
Next comes the all important ANALYSIS PHASE.
