New Years Resolution- Be Organized About Saving

Hi everyone,

As you can probably guess, I love to keep track of how much I spend, no matter how big or how small. I keep track for a variety of reasons.

Keeping track of spending allows me to compare how much I spend from month to month, and year to year, while helping me to figure out where our money is going! It also lets us see where we can try to save more.

When I talk about keeping track of spending there are many ways one can go about this process. My favorite is using a simple excel chart where I have columns for the date, item/location (ie Safeway or new shoes Marshalls), category (ie clothing, grocery, car), and then the price. I keep every receipt and store these receipts in envelopes marked with the month. At the end of the year I put all the envelopes from that year into a manila envelope to file away.

The benefit of saving all the receipts and having my excel chart is if a product falls apart I can easily search for the store in my excel chart and then look up that month's envelope so I can easily return the item.

Make it your new year's resolution to become organized with your spending habits. Saving is a lot more fun if you can try to beat your spending amount from a previous month by spending LESS. Set goals for yourself and see if you can achieve them.