Monday, April 18, 2011

Tracking my daily expenses

I've recently downloaded a free personal budget template from Google docs and have been tracking my spending habits since the beginning of April.

I'm curious to see what I have been spending my money on and I'd like to see if there are areas that I can cut back on (I'm sure there are!!!). Many times we think that we spent x when in reality, we spent x+30. It's easy to fool ourselves when we don't really know what our outgoings are.

I've set myself a daily budget and try to stick to it as best as I can (I'm not always successful I must admit!).

So far, since I began tracking my expenses, there have been two occasions that I have impulse shopped --- something that I am guilty of time and time again. I just can't resist the four-letter-word --- SALE!!!

I don't know why I buy more of the same things that I KNOW I already have... While there are days that I cave in the minute I see something I want on sale, most other days I am pretty good and am able to walk away from a sale, telling myself that if I really want it, can't get it out of my head 3 days down the road, I'll go back to the store and make the purchase. I'm happy to say that on most occasions, I'd have forgotten about the "must have" item by the time I get home :) 

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