This will be critical when you start budgeting and assigning limits to your spending in each category.Ĭommon categories include home/utilities, transportation, food, debt, personal, medical, and giving. When you’re first learning to track your spending, one of the most important habits to master is tracking each purchase into one and only one category. Later, you can use that knowledge to help you curb spending and start hitting your financial goals. But by writing down your wants and needs, you’ll start to learn what the difference is. Only you can draw the lines for yourself and your family. A supplement or beauty treatment you considered essential last year, before a job loss, might feel more like a simple “quality of life” improvement now. The lines might also change depending on your financial situation. That candy bar was food- does that make it groceries (and therefore essential)? Or is it an unnecessary impulse buy? If your old car broke down, is a brand new car really essential, or can you get away with a used one? The act of writing each expense into one of two categories will be a challenge, at first. Then, at the end of the month, you can tally them up to see how you’re spending everything. When you use a spending tracker like this one, you’ll be able to visualize all the different methods you’re using to spend money. Cash? Venmo? Check? CashApp? Credit Card? Paypal? It’s enough to make anyone think about quitting expense tracking altogether. Nowadays, there are so many different ways to spend money. The following spending trackers give you a bit more advanced information. Maybe you REALLY need to nail down your spending. (For reference, I’d need 4 pages in an average month to track all my family’s individual purchases and bills.)īut maybe you need something more than basic. Just print out as many pages as you need to. Obviously, most people make more than 18 purchases a month. It’s the most basic while still helping you track the most important data: the date, the amount you spent, what you spent it on, and what category it falls in. If you’re a complete beginner to expense tracking, try using this free printable expense tracker. And then I learned how to save money on groceries.) Or is your money disappearing down a black hole known as Amazon? Maybe you’re so generous with friends and family, you haven’t noticed you’re going into debt to do it? There’s only one way to find out! Basic Free Printable Expense Tracker However, when we write down our spending, the patterns become obvious!ĭo you have a secret spending problem when it comes to groceries? (I was definitely guilty of this, once upon a time. Our financial life is made up of behavior patterns, but it’s too hard to see the patterns during everyday life. I asked them to note what they spent, what they spent it on, what category the purchase fell into, and the date.įrom just these four pieces of information, you can learn so much about yourself, what you value, and (of course) where your money is going. When I taught high school economics, I generally assigned my students to keep track of their spending for a week using expense trackers like these. You might also like: How to Save $5000 in 6 Months Or Faster (With Progress Chart!) So easy, a teenager can do it Then, at the end of the month, you’ll know EXACTLY where all your money went! Once you know that, you’ll be able to set a budget, save for big expenses, pay down debt, or meet whatever financial goals you have. In just a few seconds a day, you can track all your purchases, bills, and expenses.
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