Budgeting and tracking your expenses is one the many ways to help you save money. If you need help budgeting or don’t know where to start, you can continue reading below to learn more on how to get started on tracking your expenses and budgeting.
Why track your expenses?
It’s important to track your expenses to see where your money goes while also making sure that your money is being used wisely. It’s good to make budget lines and assign totals for each category but you’ll need to hold yourself accountable to stay within the limits you set for yourself. Tracking your expenditures also allows you to understand why you’re in debt and how you got there.
Ways to Track Your Expenses
Once you’ve set your budget, now you’ll need to track your expenses. See the different types of methods that might work for you.
Pencil & Paper
Recording your expenses every day. Writing things down can help you stimulate your brain. This old school method can be quite helpful when you’re dealing with money. However, the downside to writing things down, you can forget how much you spent.
The Envelope System
This expense tracking method is set up a “pay cash in person” method. Non-in-person expenses, like mortgage, utilities and whatnot, can be made by checks or by debit card online, but these are easy to track.
At the beginning of each month, you can place cash in envelopes labeled with the budget lines you set for yourself. And carry that cash envelope with you when you go out. Once the envelope is empty, your spending stops.
Although, paying in cash can be inconvenient as it may cause a small hassle when you’re paying as you have to keep track of the coins and changes you get.
Computer Spreadsheets
Computer spreadsheets can give you plenty of templates to choose from and have the ability to customize your budget and also have the math done for you automatically on the screen. Easily stay organized by consistently tracking your expenses by using spreadsheets.
The second disadvantage to spreadsheets is getting to your computer to keep up with your spending. So if you don’t get to do it everyday and start to grow lax on these daily visits to enter expenses, your budget isn’t really a budget and you’re not really tracking your expenses.
Budgeting Apps
Using a budgeting app can help you log your expenses easier out of all the methods. Your phone is the best option to track your expenses since it’s always by your side. You’ll be able to remember to log your expenses and keep up with the things you buy .
 |
 |
Conclusion
Tracking your expenses can help you take control of your finances. This can help you control not only your budget, but also reveal your spending issues. Start identifying and eliminate wasteful spending habits in your financial life.
Rather than doing all the research on your own, we have compiled an in-depth guide to help you out, see the best personal finance apps.
