Tracked Every Penny I Spent for an Entire Month: I Don’t Wanna Do That Again!
For the first time in my life, I actually tracked every penny I spent in the entire month. I am convinced that tracking and monitoring your daily spending can change the way you view your variable expenses. It did for me. Here’s a snapshot of all of my spending in January for gas, food and all other expenses that weren’t fixed.
It was an extremely insightful exercise. A few of the things I learned:
1. Manual tracking of your spending makes you much more conscious of how much you spend. Instead of using an app or Mint or any other fancy tool, I just started a spreadsheet. The best way to track your spending is to do it yourself, very manually, at least for the first few months. When I spent money, I either kept the receipt or entered the amount right away. I found myself not buying things I normally wouldn’t think twice about because I didn’t want to account for it in my spreadsheet. Great! Now I’m even trying to save face for Excel. But it worked. I probably would have gone to In-N-Out another two times and gotten my hair cut the same day I did my eyebrows. But the eyebrows make a difference in how I look, where as my hair is always messy, so who cares? $40 saved!
2. There are always unplanned or occasional expenses. I was doing pretty awesome this month on my discretionary spending, until last Wednesday rolled around and I bought my FinCon12 ticket. I was planning on going, but I hadn’t saved any money for it. I bought my flight since the fares are low and Southwest doesn’t charge you change fees. Next month, it’s my oil change/brake pads and flights for a wedding in April. And there’s car registration, website hosting fees and a bunch of other irregular things coming up in each month. So there’s your fixed budgeted expenses like rent, insurance, car payments and utility bills. Then you have things you know will spend on that are variable expenses like food, gas and entertainment. But what about those one-off items? If I really want to get out of debt, I have to acknowledge that irregular expenses continue to occur regularly. My savings fund needs more juice. I also need start separating that money into a few different categories: Savings, down payment fund, car maintenance/registration, gifts, travel.
3. Damn I eat a lot of chocolate! Practically all of those under $5 purchases in the food column are me eating chocolate, candy or Cheetos from CVS or the 99-cent store that’s right by my house. It’s a bad habit, I know. But it breaks up a long afternoon in my cubicle, or an evening at home when I’m trying not to go out and spend money elsewhere. I want to cut this down, but I’ve also noticed that if I go too long without eating, I feel like throwing up. A girl’s gotta eat. Preferably Kit-Kats, Sour Punch and Reese’s Sticks (why don’t they sell those everywhere anymore? I have to go to the 99-cent store to find them. Are they discontinued and 99 Cents Only got the last truckload? Hang on. OK, according to Wikipedia, they’re still available. Phew!)
4. It’s OK to jump on a good deal if it really will save you money. My company-issued Blackberry was dying and our office manager said I could get an iPhone if I wanted to pay the $50 difference. I totally jumped on it because I had been counting down the days to when I could upgrade my personal phone to an iPhone. But now I won’t have to pay $200 for a new phone OR the $15/month required data plan. I have an unlimited data plan for my iPhone and I use my own phone for calls. It’s a little less simple than just having one phone, but it works.
5. I would benefit from being more detail-oriented. I should really track my spending every day. I can tell I would save money. It’s an extra motivator to spend just a little less on the things that add up: snacks, meals out and even gas. I was surprised to see I only filled up my gas tank three times this month when I drive almost daily. Being conscious of what you spend makes you start changing habits, even a little bit, and that will start to add up for you.
That being said, I don’t really like the idea of keeping track of what I spend. It’s my old mentality of how tracking every penny is being cheap and/or lame. Believe me, I know that’s not true! Based on the unfiltered, painstakingly detailed spending accounts of big-name PF bloggers, I know it can make a big difference in your wealth. But I don’t like to think that I am getting caught up in the petty details when I could be coming up with new ideas, out making money or cutting big expenses like car payments. So I’m going to balance those two ideas. I am going to keep up with the spending tracking sheet. I may not post it every month because I don’t like to share every single dollar amount of my life (it’s boring, you’re not missing anything!), but I will acknowledge if I did it in my monthly debt update post. I’ll also start talking more about ways I am increasing my income. For example, those two eBay expenses shown above are not me buying stuff, but rather updating my eBay inventory. My monthly income from eBay is currently negligible, but I hope to increase it to $150/month in the next few months. All in all, tracking my spending was a great start to 2012 and monthly goals are keeping me on track for meeting my 2012 resolutions.
So I have to know: which of you track every penny you spend, every month? Does it work? Did you hate it at first but now love it? Have you still never tried it? Let me know!
PS- In case some of my explanations weren’t clear…
In-N-Out is my fast food burger of choice. I get a grilled cheese because I was a vegetarian for four years and I still love the meatless version.
85 degrees is an awesome Taiwanese bakery. You have to stand in line out the door for this place. Worth it!
800 Degrees is the newest creation of Umami Burger’s founder, Adam Fleischman: a make-your-own Neapolitan pizza that starts at $5 plus $1 for each topping. I’m definitely going back.
C & O Cucina is down the street from me and is a beloved Italian place in LA. We always say the guy who hands out the free garlic knots in this place must have such high self-esteem, everyone is always happy to see him!
Sprouts is a health/grocery store with cheap local produce. I go there to overload on avocados, watermelons and oranges, among other things. TJs is Trader Joe’s, the trendy but delicious small grocery store.
I track far more than you do. I now track what I eat on a daily basis, it does make me reconsider opting for junk food in the evening when I have a look at what I have eaten during the day.
I second the eye brow shaping. If it makes a difference keep it in the budget. I had someone ruin my eyebrows. I was so upset that I said a prayer to God that I would never pay to have them done if He would just let them grow back to their natural state.
They did grow back and I am a “self shaper”.
I think you’re correct. Doing this exercise will help you realize some of your spending flaws and everyone should do it at least once. But to track every single penny every month can be tiring and cumbersome. After you determine where you can cut spending (ie chocolate), you can use a budgeting tool or spreadsheet to give yourself a cash spending allowance every month so you can buy whatever you want with that budgeted amount.
Since the new year, I switched over to a cash system. I have $20 a week for personal spending, such as coffee, snacks, and any misc. items. I’m very frugal anyways and anything like clothes and haircuts I pay out of debit and that gets tracked as shared spending with my BF. I also have $100 for groceries weekly. I track my spending daily in my wallet and whatever is left over at the end of the week, I’m putting into my $1k emergency fund. I just started and I already have $450!! Good luck to you!
I’m impressed. This was tough for me. I would usually catch up with the tracking every couple days. Of course, the big trend in 2012 (and 2011) is quantifying our lives, and there is going to be a lot more data out there we can capture about ourselves.
I’m happy the eyebrows grew back! Seriously, people can butcher them and it ruins the whole look. It happened to me once in college. I trust my lady 100% and she does an amazing job. I would shape myself but I don’t trust my eye.
Rachel, that’s really awesome! I tried the cash system and need to go back to it. Is it just two of you? $100/week for groceries seems like a lot. I spent $213 this month, but I’m usually around $250. I want to start couponing so we can spend like $150 on all food!
I do track all my spending, but I think the real benefit to this is to see how you spend long-term, rather than obsess over your spending habits for a short span. I use mint.com, so it basically does the work for me. I don’t swear too much my transactions in a given month (sometimes things come up, you know?) but it’s REALLY helpful to see how I spend money over the course of six months or a year. For instance, I thought I wasn’t spending much on stuff (like, general shopping, clothes, DVDs, etc.), but apparently that’s totally not true, because shopping took up a much bigger chunk of my 2011 income than I expected!
I’ve been tracking our spending to the penny since 2003 or 2004. I didn’t do anything with the information (other than yearly comparisons) until C lost his job in 2009. But when that happened, I knew exactly what our budget looked like, exactly where we could cut $$$ and what our bills were.
I still track to the penny.
Do I use the information every day? No, but big, unexpected life changes can happen at any time, and it makes everything so much easier if the information is already at your fingertips when you turn out to need it.
I did for several months. And like you, had to face some messages hitting from the screen. Develops very good discipline, tracking does!
I wonder if your readers try to imagine what you look like… because from reading your spending spreadsheet, you sound like a pot-bellied, bushy-haired lady. Haha! I had no idea you eat so much junk food. If you can’t afford to consume the cash, at least you can afford to consume the calories!
Anyway, good job! And thanks for the honesty. I’d be appalled to have my monthly spendings posted online. Just last month, I realized that I spent $80 on 2 mani/pedis and a massage, which is a STEAL!! But still, I could have used that money when my $200 heating bill came in… =*/ Next month, one self-pampering session, and switch to space heater!
By the way, I said that because she’s slim. I guess it would sound mean if people didn’t know that. Lol.
JaneDoe, you’re killing the mystery! I want readers to imagine me as the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons…or worse.
We need an intervention or what? What’s up with all that candy???? You spend more on candy than I spend on my lattes. I am not concerned about money. I am concerned about possible elevated sugar levels!
Believe me, I know! I was like, should I really share this on my blog? That’s a lot of junk to eat! I’m going to try to eat less junk in February, but it won’t be easy.
I was just thinking of doing this. since yesterday was the 1st i think i will do it! Oh btw found you through Andrea at So Over Debt Blog
Teinegurl, you should do it! I just started my February tracking sheet, it’s a piece of paper in my notebook. It’s weird at first, but then you get used to it!
YOWZA- impressive…I’m the exact opposite apparently. I rarely check any statements. I give my accounts a glimpse and if everything looks about right then I’m good. Maybe it’s costing me, I don’t know?
85C! I cannot believe some of the lines I see. I frankly don’t think it’s that much better than J&J’s. Do love their taro bun and sea salt coffee, though.
I tracked every penny last month and.. well I’m pretty ashamed of my spending, especially now that I see you were at $900!
Man I gotta get things under control.
I won’t need to beat you up over the junk, since you’ve already done it. But, then what kinda Doc would I be if I ignored it? One small piece of chocolate a day could be healthy, but the doughnuts and other junk, gotta go!
Doc, my snack today is grapes and oranges. I’m going to definitely reduce the junk this month. But donuts too? What can I say, I like the donut stand by our house. He’s a sweet old Asian man, I like to think I’m supporting the local economy!
I’ve been tracking our expenses on Mint, but lately I’ve been considering abandoning it. At this point, I know we consistently spend $50 a month on coffee, $400 a month on groceries, etc.
My husband is actually the one with the spending habit. I think I should make him do the tracking.
PS: We have a jar of free candy at the office where I work. If I had to pay for it, my spreadsheet would probably look more like yours.
Yes, I think he should track the expenses! We have free snacks at our office too and I still feel the need to supplement since whatever snack is out is usually gone by the afternoon and that’s when I’m hungry. My friend suggested starting an office stash…it’ll save me money but that’s not very healthy
[...] years longer than I’ve been doing anything with the information, but American Debt Project just tracked every penny they spent for an entire month, and doesn’t want to do it [...]
One question that I get over and over again in twitter is which app can I recommend to keep track of spending.
NONE!
I do not use apps, I believe that is more useful to write down expenses because it engages our conscience in deeper level. Apps take away a lot of the emotional burden that is tracking expenses , and realizing where the money goes.
I give a money management skill class , and the first exercise I request is to track down expenses with pen and paper. It really changes the way the students start thinking about money.
[...] updates every year for his Get Rich Slowly blog. It is plainly written and comprehensive. I started tracking every penny I spent in 2012 because of reading this. And once you read one GRS, you’ll want to read [...]
Awesome post. Tracking all of your money is very difficult, I agree. I have been tracking “almost all” of my spending for the past year and a half. I have found it incredibly beneficial as well as I know what categories I do well in and which I do poorly in. Thanks for the great post.
Ok im doing it!! I will let u know the results!!
Nice work!! Let us know the results. I’m doing it for February…would you believe I haven’t bought any candy this month? It really works
[...] done feeding off my money. I’ve spent $2 on chocolate this month. Compared to what I realized I regularly spend on unhealthy snacks, that’s a huge [...]
[...] tasks on your own and how much convenience have you lost. In some ways being frugal is similar to tracking every penny you spend. It can be helpful, but the more you do it the more your returns from the activity [...]
Do I track every single cent? Hell no.
I do track pretty closely, because my online banking offers a really awesome tool to categorise all my transactions.
If it weren’t for that, I honestly don’t know what I would be doing in terms of tracking expenses today.
Trust me, this is the BEST thing you can do for your finances. It isn’t as bad as it seems.
I paid off a debt load that was approaching 100% of my annual take home, and have been able to save well over 100% of my annual take home in 6 years. I am convinced that the main reason I was able to get back in the black was because my monthly budget spreadsheet kept me “in the truth” at all times.
Make a spreadsheet budget template and fill one out for each month. You will tweak your spreadsheet to fit your needs over time. My spreadsheet is based on needs(45%), wants(20%), savings(35%).
Get a receipt for EVERYTHING and stash it in your wallet. That way you can pile your receipts up and fill out your budget when you have time. After a few months of tweaking, filling out your budget only takes 2 minutes a week!
I have my monthly budgets in Google docs, that way they are always available.
The real power comes from having years and years of financial history at your finger tips…did you know I paid $106.75 for a DVD burner in January 2006, and $46.59 for my cell phone in February of 2005?!
Good Luck!
Luther
[...] My Spending: I fought tooth and nail for months not to track every dollar spent. I finally did it in January and have been keeping it up ever since! It’s been one more way to keep me accountable and on [...]
[...] be the first to admit I have weird spending patterns. I will go days without buying anything, then make all of my necessary and fun purchases at [...]