Do you track your spending?

jenna8984 · December 2014

NERD ALERT- I love my excel spreadsheets.

I pay for everything with my credit card to get the rewards points, and pay it off in full each month. When I get the monthly statement I put it into my excel in broad categories. I just think it's fun to compare with prior months and prior years and see where I come in. So I just got the last bill of 2014 and here are my results

Clothes, Utilities- both less than 2013 & 2012. Yay me that's exciting!

Eating out, Groceries- both higher than previous years. Boo me I'm a fatty

Fun (concerts, tattoos, books, etc)- slightly higher than both years but not much

Gas- higher but I now work 3 times further away than I did

Gifts, Vacations, Misc (medical, car repairs, etc) - in between 2012 & 2013- I'll take it as a win

Home improvements, Insurance, and Cell phone- even with the other years

So do you track yours at all or am I just a freak?

plainjane0415 · December 2014

I use excel for budgeting and balancing my bank account. I don't use it for allocatng where I've spent my money. I use my credit card like you do and pay it off every month to get the cashback rewards with Discover. On their app, they show me a breakdown of spending, and I use the my weekly budget app to keep me on track as well.

PS I'm an excel lover too, if I can use it for something you bet your ass I will! I love it.

loveislouder · December 2014

I go by month - if I have money at the end that's a win lol

kat1114 · December 2014

I use a combination of Mint.com and excel. Mint is mostly for keeping track of my currently monthly spending, whereas I use excel mostly for budgeting for the next few months at a time.

kerbohl · December 2014

I also am a fan of categories for spending and comparing it to see if I'm on track. Excel is just perfect for it. I watch my gas especially, but some of it is usually gas prices fluctuating. I also started up a car pool at my work this year, so gas is down for me - it's a win! It's a great way to make sure that debt doesn't creep on on you.
Eating out is really down for me this year. I've always thought that if I can make it just as easily at home, I don't see the point of eating out, so I always go out for stuff like Chinese (or lasagna, because I HATE making lasagna), and DH doesn't care that much for Chinese.
If you are a freak for tracking using Excel, I am also a freak!

amelisha · December 2014

We put everything on cards for the points, too, but I don't do any kind of official tracking because almost all my expenses are exactly the same month to month. As long as I end up with the amount of money I expect to have at the end of the month, I'm satisfied.

Maggie0829 · December 2014

Personally I go week to week. I have a tiny book I keep in my purse and make a note whenever I spend my personal money (I usually also note what I spent it on). Each week I get $80 to spend on whatever I want. At the end of the week if I spend less then what I gave myself I put the leftover in a jar on my nightstand to save up for something big in the future or if I know I want to buy a pair or boots or something that I know will send me over my limit I use the extra for the next week.

Now for our personal and household budgets and bills and such I use and excel spreadsheet to lay it all out there and to easily add everything up.

FiancB · December 2014

I do off and on. I haven't in quite a while. Once the break starts up I intend to start back up again and really crack down on our finances.

I get depressed by what we spend on groceries. I try really hard to keep it down but we still spend so much. I remind myself that we don't eat out very much, but yikes. At least we have Costco now.

theartistformerlyknownas · December 2014

Nope. I keep track of what we spent out of our joint account as each month is over, as we're trying to stick to meeting or exceeding a certain amount leftover to go into savings toward a new house. But we don't keep track as we go, and definitely not YOY. And it's less MOM and more "above or below goal" for each month by itself.

@FiancB we spend a disgusting amount between Kroger and Costco. I'm embarrassed to see how much we've spent on mostly food for two people. We did have a Halloween party and Brunchgiving in there for the last two months but still. It's way too much.

Sugargirl1019 · December 2014

Yes yes yes we track. DH loves his damned excel spread shit and even loves to "forecast" how much we'll have available in a few months so he can afford a new car.

No. I hate that thing for that reason. I don't trust it.

flyingfoxes · December 2014

I don't. But I think I'm gonna have to get better at it if I'm going to merge accounts with FI after the wedding. He tracks everything in Quicken I think. You would think with my past history of being a bank teller I would write everything down, but I don't. I just randomly log on to online banking to check up on things a couple times a week.

southernbelle0915 · December 2014

I was thinking about this after the wedding contingency thread the other day.

Not really.... We aren't crazy spenders and are very much on the "want what you have" mentality. If there was something really big like a vacation, a car, or whatever, we'd make sure we could afford it, but we don't really track the day to day stuff.

Jells2dot0 · December 2014

I normally track, but this year I let it go because of being home-bound. My spending is pretty consistent from year to year, unless I'm on long term work travel. They pay for my meals, so it usually causes a drop in eating out. With being home most of this year, my spending was drastically down because I couldn't go anywhere to spend my money! As bad as it was to be sick, it was very helpful as I was able to take the money I'd normally spend on travel and increase my contribution to our down payment on our next home. Since I'll be the one paying the mortgage, I'm pretty happy with having a slightly lower payment.

cupcait927 · December 2014

southernbelle0915 said:

I was thinking about this after the wedding contingency thread the other day.

Not really.... We aren't crazy spenders and are very much on the "want what you have" mentality. If there was something really big like a vacation, a car, or whatever, we'd make sure we could afford it, but we don't really track the day to day stuff.

This is us as well. We know what we can afford, we always have money leftover at the end of the month, and our bills all get paid. We don't track much. That being said, I'm going to sit down with H after Christmas and come up with a much more strict budget and tracking system. This will be necessary if we want to do the projects we have planned around the house as well as go on very much delayed honeymoon. That and I have somewhat substantial student loan debt that I would like to pay down and I want to come up with a plan to do so we can start rolling that money into other debt (like cars and our mortgage).

[Deleted User] · December 2014

I do, on and off. I've been off for a bit and it's probably time to get back on the horse. I got a raise recently and it seems silly not to "know" where that additional income is going.

I don't do credit cards. I have one for work that I wouldn't have if my job didn't require me to travel.

futuremrsr2015 · December 2014

kat1114 said:

I use a combination of Mint.com and excel. Mint is mostly for keeping track of my currently monthly spending, whereas I use excel mostly for budgeting for the next few months at a time.

LOVE Mint.com for keeping track of everything. I have all the accounts linked to it so that I can track everything down to the penny. We also have an excel budget that is set up to be monthly that can be updated as needed but it's more to give us a ballpark of what needs to be set aside every month.

kerbohl · December 2014

@FiancB Groceries is one of the areas that I've been really good at when it comes to saving. Do you buy a lot of fresh greens and meats and whatnot and that contributes to higher bills? My parents started juicing and their grocery bills went through the roof. If that is the case, the health benefits probably outweigh the cost of the foods.
Myself, I've been refusing to buy anything that isn't on sale (besides basics like milk and eggs). Anything that will keep, like flour, or meats that I can freeze, I buy double or triple when it is on sale, and it saves me a fair amount. I also started making my own salad dressing and my own bread - healthier and cheaper! It helps that i got a bread-maker though. Making bread without one is much more difficult.
Sorry for all the suggestions - I'm a little fascinated by what people spend on food and what is expensive here compared to what is expensive in Europe. I was paying less than 15 (euros, mind you) a week on groceries when I was over there, and I was eating so well! Food is expensive in North America.

kat1114 · December 2014

futuremrsr2015 said:

kat1114 said:

I use a combination of Mint.com and excel. Mint is mostly for keeping track of my currently monthly spending, whereas I use excel mostly for budgeting for the next few months at a time.

LOVE Mint.com for keeping track of everything. I have all the accounts linked to it so that I can track everything down to the penny. We also have an excel budget that is set up to be monthly that can be updated as needed but it's more to give us a ballpark of what needs to be set aside every month.

I'm surprised more people don't use Mint- it's great! It keeps me accountable because I find it harder to ignore what I've been spending when it's starring me right in the face in neatly defined categories.

cupcait927 · December 2014

kat1114 said:

futuremrsr2015 said:

kat1114 said:

I use a combination of Mint.com and excel. Mint is mostly for keeping track of my currently monthly spending, whereas I use excel mostly for budgeting for the next few months at a time.

LOVE Mint.com for keeping track of everything. I have all the accounts linked to it so that I can track everything down to the penny. We also have an excel budget that is set up to be monthly that can be updated as needed but it's more to give us a ballpark of what needs to be set aside every month.

I'm surprised more people don't use Mint- it's great! It keeps me accountable because I find it harder to ignore what I've been spending when it's starring me right in the face in neatly defined categories.

Mint doesn't like to work with the bank that I use. I loved it when I used a bigger national bank but now I use a smaller local bank. It doesn't like to categorize things correctly any longer with my new bank account so I was always having to go back into my bank account to fix what Mint was screwing up. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

jenna8984 · December 2014

kerbohl said:

@FiancB Groceries is one of the areas that I've been really good at when it comes to saving. Do you buy a lot of fresh greens and meats and whatnot and that contributes to higher bills? My parents started juicing and their grocery bills went through the roof. If that is the case, the health benefits probably outweigh the cost of the foods.
Myself, I've been refusing to buy anything that isn't on sale (besides basics like milk and eggs). Anything that will keep, like flour, or meats that I can freeze, I buy double or triple when it is on sale, and it saves me a fair amount. I also started making my own salad dressing and my own bread - healthier and cheaper! It helps that i got a bread-maker though. Making bread without one is much more difficult.
Sorry for all the suggestions - I'm a little fascinated by what people spend on food and what is expensive here compared to what is expensive in Europe. I was paying less than 15 (euros, mind you) a week on groceries when I was over there, and I was eating so well! Food is expensive in North America.

See I actually find produce and healthy eating to be way cheaper. When we are dieting in the summer and we buy tons of fruit instead of chips/ junk our bill goes down. I mean a head of lettuce is $1 and a bunch of green beans is $1 and a banana is 20 cents each. But doritos and ice cream are frigen $5. When we were being healthy before the wedding our bill was $70 per week and now that we are eating whatever it's $120 a week. Time to get healthy again!

kvruns · December 2014

@kerbohl "Anything that will keep, like flour, or meats that I can freeze, I buy double or triple when it is on sale, and it saves me a fair amount. "

That's what I've always done and have always been a good grocery shopper/saver. FI is terrible at it and just buys whatever, whenever. I finally convinced him it is ok to freeze ground beef and other meats when they are on sale but that's about it. Out of convenience he does a lot of the shopping which stinks because I know we spend way more than needed. Not to mention if there is a coupon he WILL use it, even if it isn't a good deal whereas I cut out coupons but it still has to be a good deal to use it

cupcait927 · December 2014

@jenna8984 I found the same to be true - healthy eating (as long it's not all organic) is far cheaper than eating junk all the time. We buy mostly fruits, veggies and meat (some bread and pasta thrown in) because H can't eat most processed food - corn allergy. Our money goes so much further than when I was buying junk and processed food. It's a little more work but cheaper. Now if I went the all organic route like my in-laws then our grocery bills would be astronomical.

FiancB · December 2014

Yeah, I should probably get a bread maker. I tried to make my own by hand for a while and it's a huge pain. Wheat in particular just doesn't turn out.

I haven't checked finances since moving. It seems like we're spending a lot still but surely we are saving compared to what we used to.. Where we were, if we wanted decent produce we had to go to the little local expensive store, because Walmart and Target were the only other places to shop and theirs was terrible. Here I mix it up between Costco, Cub, Trader Joes and Target depending on what I need.

We haven't totally merged finances yet so we have three different bank accounts to keep track of. It'll be much easier when I get it all thrown into one.

southernbelle0915 · December 2014

jenna8984 said:

kerbohl said:

@FiancB Groceries is one of the areas that I've been really good at when it comes to saving. Do you buy a lot of fresh greens and meats and whatnot and that contributes to higher bills? My parents started juicing and their grocery bills went through the roof. If that is the case, the health benefits probably outweigh the cost of the foods.
Myself, I've been refusing to buy anything that isn't on sale (besides basics like milk and eggs). Anything that will keep, like flour, or meats that I can freeze, I buy double or triple when it is on sale, and it saves me a fair amount. I also started making my own salad dressing and my own bread - healthier and cheaper! It helps that i got a bread-maker though. Making bread without one is much more difficult.
Sorry for all the suggestions - I'm a little fascinated by what people spend on food and what is expensive here compared to what is expensive in Europe. I was paying less than 15 (euros, mind you) a week on groceries when I was over there, and I was eating so well! Food is expensive in North America.

See I actually find produce and healthy eating to be way cheaper. When we are dieting in the summer and we buy tons of fruit instead of chips/ junk our bill goes down. I mean a head of lettuce is $1 and a bunch of green beans is $1 and a banana is 20 cents each. But doritos and ice cream are frigen $5. When we were being healthy before the wedding our bill was $70 per week and now that we are eating whatever it's $120 a week. Time to get healthy again!

Yea, I find this too. I can make a soup that will last for a week (for multiple people) for about $5. I went to wendy's the other day and got a Spicy Chicken Combo....it cost me about $8. For ONE meal for ONE person.

theartistformerlyknownas · December 2014

jenna8984 said:

kerbohl said:

@FiancB Groceries is one of the areas that I've been really good at when it comes to saving. Do you buy a lot of fresh greens and meats and whatnot and that contributes to higher bills? My parents started juicing and their grocery bills went through the roof. If that is the case, the health benefits probably outweigh the cost of the foods.
Myself, I've been refusing to buy anything that isn't on sale (besides basics like milk and eggs). Anything that will keep, like flour, or meats that I can freeze, I buy double or triple when it is on sale, and it saves me a fair amount. I also started making my own salad dressing and my own bread - healthier and cheaper! It helps that i got a bread-maker though. Making bread without one is much more difficult.
Sorry for all the suggestions - I'm a little fascinated by what people spend on food and what is expensive here compared to what is expensive in Europe. I was paying less than 15 (euros, mind you) a week on groceries when I was over there, and I was eating so well! Food is expensive in North America.

See I actually find produce and healthy eating to be way cheaper. When we are dieting in the summer and we buy tons of fruit instead of chips/ junk our bill goes down. I mean a head of lettuce is $1 and a bunch of green beans is $1 and a banana is 20 cents each. But doritos and ice cream are frigen $5. When we were being healthy before the wedding our bill was $70 per week and now that we are eating whatever it's $120 a week. Time to get healthy again!

You're eating the whole fruits and veggies though I imagine. If they're using a juicer the sheer volume will get you - depending on the type of fruit/vegetable and the method, it could take a whole bushel of produce to get a glass of juice!

I wish we had room to keep more things frozen, but our freezer is too small and constantly full of chicken. I need to buy stock in a chicken farm with as much chicken and eggs as that man eats. (No, I refuse to raise chickens myself.)

larrygaga · December 2014

Nah, I just check my bank account a couple times a week

luckya23 · December 2014

I've been slacking on checking up on it lately, but I've had mint.com for over 7 years now, so the info is there - I just have to use it!

kerbohl · December 2014

@kvruns Those coupons can be really tricky! Sometimes I find you are actually losing money with them - say the coupon is saying that you will save $2 if you buy three items together, but you only need one item. You would save by just buying the one item by itself and not getting the other two that you don't really need.
I personally buy fresh stuff myself and find I save, but my parents do juicing, and the amount of fresh produce that goes into that is pretty crazy. I like casseroles and chilies that last for a couple of meals. And I stopped buying snacks a long time ago, aside from almonds and dried fruit which are quite expensive, but filling.

jenna8984 · December 2014

Also I hate when I go to lunch with a friend and they suggest putting it on my card and giving me the cash. Cuz I'm gunna go spend that cash on something random and my tracking is going to look over inflated. But I don't want to be a weirdo and say no for $25 worth so I just do it.

kvruns · December 2014

@kerbohl Exactly! So I would just buy the 1 item but FI would buy all 3 because, ya know, he had a coupon.....sigh. Or buy the store brand instead because it is cheaper than name brand w/ coupon (assuming taste isn't compromised)

I try to make sure that whatever we make lasts a few meals or dinners + lunches although things never last as long with him around

plainjane0415 · December 2014

jenna8984 said:

Also I hate when I go to lunch with a friend and they suggest putting it on my card and giving me the cash. Cuz I'm gunna go spend that cash on something random and my tracking is going to look over inflated. But I don't want to be a weirdo and say no for $25 worth so I just do it.

I hate this too! Throws off my whole system.. haha

Do you track your spending?

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