Budgeting 102 – Five Ways to Track Your Spending

If you need help about on how you can track your spending, so you can control it well, here are the five special ways for you to go:

Do the Envelope System

This way, you will compile your budget and have an envelope for every category and put the cash allotted to every category into the corresponding envelope. You can spend your money through the month and once the envelopes run out, you’ll stop spending in that category. Easy, right? This method is fairly simple and effective. In case you’re new to budgeting, it doesn’t get more real than the envelope system, which is often what newbies in budgeting needs. Whenever the money is gone, you cannot spend anymore. Keep in mind, cash is a tangible representation of money, which makes it a lot difficult for you to spend.

Use the Excel Spreadsheet

Your computer is one of the staple equipment within your room, so you can use it for you to track your spending. You can use excel spreadsheet to track your net worth. You could also create your own budget or find a pre-made template and customize it according to your liking. With this, you could see an overview of your budget, giving you the opportunity to look back on the past months in order for you to see what’s working and what’s not.

Handwritten

Whenever handwritten lists and notes are where you are more effective, having a notebook where you could write down your budget may be a good option for you. You can actually print one out and place it in your fridge or keep the notebook in your bag. Active budgeting doesn’t really get more active than the handwritten one. Every expense will then be burned into your consciousness since you’ll be writing them down afterwards.

Use What the Banks Offer

A lot of banks are now offering their online services. One of those is tracking your spending, you’re given the chance to see your balances and easily sort out all of your purchases by category. Why should you reinvent the wheel if your bank has already done it for you?

Use Your Phone or Your Tablet

Your phone or your tablet are some of the highly used gadgets that you own. You can download apps and software that can help you track down your spending. This could surely be a great method of you always get into the habit of adding up purchases in a regular manner. There are many apps that could surely help you track down your spending for free. If you would like to know the status of your budget, you’ll have the idea about where your money is really going to.

When it comes to tracking down your spending, you could surely use whatever method, as long as it works best for you.