How Your Spending Can Help Guide Future Habits With Money
We’ve all been there, too much month at the end of the money or you make too much money to be this broke!
It’s not a fun place to be and when you’re feeling that stressed with money, you can’t possibly see a way out.
What if I told you that if you looked at your current spending habits, you’d probably be able to tweak a few things to relieve your money stress? Of course there are always the situations when you simply don’t make enough money (you’ll have to increase your income or lower your monthly expenses) but I’m talking to those of you that have a decent income but it never seems to be enough.
This is where tracking our spending comes into play and it’s a total game changer! When we see where our money actually goes, versus where we think it goes, we are able to do a better job with our everyday spending. Do we want to continue spending the way we have been or do we want our money to be going towards something else like a vacation, season tickets at the local theater or a larger Christmas fund?
So how do you go about tracking your money so that you can make changes to actually be able to afford the things you love most in life? Here is a free 90-Day Expense Tracker that you can use to get started. Use bank statements, both checking and credit cards, Venmo history and whatever other accounts you spend money out of to fill in this spreadsheet to get your monthly averages. These averages will tell you how much money you spend in any category on average.
Since money isn’t an infinite resource, it helps to see how spending in one area will decrease the amount you have available to spend in another. This is when we can ask what’s more important, this new pair of jeans or another day at a resort?
When you compare those totals to your monthly income you can start to ask yourself, can I afford to keep spending this much money in certain categories or is this the reason that I run out of money each month?
Use your monthly averages to outline a budget and don’t forget to include your goals like that vacation you have been wanting to go on. If the totals in each category are more than you make in a month, you will have to reduce your spending in some areas.
By aligning our planned spending with our income, we can ensure we reach our goals and continue to do what matters most in life, without going into debt. But the trick is to get started. Start with the 90-Day Expense Tracker to see where your money is going and decide, is this the path I want to stay on or do I have other plans for myself?
