I used to think I was “pretty good” with money. Then I started writing down *every* purchase, coffee, snacks, impulse buys, everything, for two months straight. It wasn’t about guilt, just awareness. Turns out most of my “small” expenses added up to almost a quarter of my rent. Now every time I want to buy something, I ask myself if I’d still want it if I had to write it down in my notebook. Weirdly enough, that single habit made saving feel less like sacrifice and more like control.
Started tracking every single expense for 60 days, it completely changed how I see money
byu/tommy1989zyx inFrugal
Posted by tommy1989zyx
6 Comments
Welcome to the club! It’s been two years for me like this. Definitely an eye opening experience in the beginning. With time it turned more into data- mining 😂 and “gaming” experience. Can I spend less next month? Can I reduce it here or there?
Pretty easy if you just put everything on a CC. Then record household stuff via excel
Same thing works with dieting. Just the act of recording what you eat makes you realize what you are doing.
Expense and income tracking also makes it really easy when tax time comes around as well! I keep a journal and make sure to do my reciept records each month so I can see where I have wiggle room and where I need to cut extra expenses that aren’t neccessary.
I have a custom spreadsheet that I made and have been using for 4 years. Every single dollar in or out goes in there and is categorized. It’s incredible to see it in that level of detail. For the first few years it was just data. I’ve just recently really been trying to reduce my expenditures and it’s become a fun game.
Every time I buy something now, my phone comes out and I log it in a spreadsheet. Every paycheck I track where all the money goes.
Makes it a lot more miserable to spend money on impulse purchases when I need to log it and see the remaining moneyI have to spend go down. I was spending way too much on grabbing takeout or fast food after work and dumb stuff like that until I started tracking everything.