tracking your spends

carlamarie_2 · 8 June 2016 at 1:59PM

how do you all track your spends?

I am wasting far too much money on general tat and decided to start tracking my spends, but I'm unsure on how this will work best for me. how does it work for you?

do you write everything in a notebook and tally it up at the end of the week? month?
do you write 'home bargains £3.49'? or 'cereal 1.49, washing liquid £1'?
does it all stay in the notebook? or is it transferred somewhere else into catergories to tally up? eg, 'week 1, haircare £6, drinks £3' etc

any pictures of your tracking or links to templates would be really appreciated.

I get paid on Friday and I'm hoping to start this and see if I can use it to cut down my spends
thanks in advance

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maman · 8 June 2016 at 2:07PM

As you want to save some money I would recommend a spending diary where you write down every single penny. Ideally do it at the time but keep all receipts and do it later if that's easier. You can use a notebook (sometimes a nice notebook is a motivator).

At the end of each week go through what you've spent and review what you can cut back on. I find that asking myself 'Do I need this or just want it?' helpful and also the very fact that I'd have to write it down stopped me from buying non-essentials.

Some people find giving themselves and allowance for the week and drawing out cash helps as it's scary to see actual cash disappearing so you tend to eke it out.

Keep out of shops as much as possible. It's so easy to go in for a pint of milk and come out with £10's worth.

That should get you started but others will give you ideas too. Good luck.

JP08 · 8 June 2016 at 2:18PM

Um - the tracking Excel spreadsheet now runs to 10Meg, holding approx 20 account (currents, savings, ISAs, mortgage, credit cards and a few others) tracking worksheets. I don't record to the detail of individual items, just broad categories
eg -01/04/2016 - Debit Card - Tesco Store - Food & Household - £32.55.

The account sheets have every transaction going back to 1997 on them. So plenty of scope for trend analysis.

The spreadsheet also has 3 forecasting worksheets and another 8 analysis worksheets. Oh, and tracking worksheets for car costs, pay analysis and utilities usage / costs, house value etc.

There are also individual spreadsheets for tracking stuff that I feel the need for more detail on. Eg Work expenditure on lunches etc.

Having a target for each category will keep the monthly expenditure down. Eg the work expenditure sheet has a target of £3 a day (to cover snacks, breakfast and lunch - beverages supplied by work).

Warning note - this might not be seen as "normal behavior"

MallyGirl · 8 June 2016 at 2:47PM

I only have 12 tabs on mine - but then one has all credit cards, one has savings, one has pensions, one has endowments, etc, etc.
I don't budget to the same level as I don't need to but I do track spending at a high level and have a predictor for when the mortgage will be paid off.

I am a control freak - most people would find my system daunting rather than helpful but you do what works for you. Any system is better than no system.

HappyMJ · 8 June 2016 at 3:02PM

carlamarie wrote: »

how do you all track your spends?

I am wasting far too much money on general tat and decided to start tracking my spends, but I'm unsure on how this will work best for me. how does it work for you?

do you write everything in a notebook and tally it up at the end of the week? month?
do you write 'home bargains £3.49'? or 'cereal 1.49, washing liquid £1'?
does it all stay in the notebook? or is it transferred somewhere else into catergories to tally up? eg, 'week 1, haircare £6, drinks £3' etc

any pictures of your tracking or links to templates would be really appreciated.

I get paid on Friday and I'm hoping to start this and see if I can use it to cut down my spends
thanks in advance

I do the broad categories. If I wrote down each item it would be overwhelming.

suki1964 · 8 June 2016 at 3:02PM

I just kept detailed notes for a month.

That gave me an idea on where the money was going and where money could be saved. That was ALL spends, be it a newspaper, a cuppa, diesel, a mars bar, hair dye, everything

Most of the extra spends were buying things not really needed, like a bottle of water when out, or a coffee and a bun or sandwich. Or seeing a nail varnish in a new colour when I've got at least a hundred and I couldn't have painted nails in work anyway lol

Household shopping is done by list. Right now I'm cleaning out the fridge and cupboards and I'm writing a list of things I don't have but use regularly - like rice wine, stock pots, peanut oil, strong bread flour etc. Now I might not rush out to buy them because I don't have them, I'll keep them on the list till I see them at a price I'm happy to pay, till then I do without and substitute

Knowing exactly what you have in the house already straight away cuts out on the spending Because I'd let my larder get a mess I bought chilli powder last week and have found a jar on the wrong shelf. Ok it's only 40p but it all adds up

So now everything I need to buy is listed, like I say it's a rolling list

beedeedee · 8 June 2016 at 4:08PM

I bought one of those desktop spikes that you used to see in old films.....I empty my purse every day and put ALL of my shop receipts on it. Every month or so I have a grand tally up and frighten myself to death......

[Deleted User] · 8 June 2016 at 5:05PM

I use an ordinary small notebook that you can buy fairly cheaply at a stationers.Everything I spend in the food dept goes in it ,but then I keep a separate purse with just 'food' money in it so when its gone that's it until the 1st of the following month .So far I haven't run out of food cash in the 60+ years I have been doing it

paying by cash only focuses you on what you are spending and back in the early 1960s when I got married its how everyone kept track of their cash as few housewives had bank accounts, and certainly no one I knew had a credit card.I have a large A4 book which I buy from WH Smiths and use a page on the right for all outgoing bills and payments due every month On the left hand page I list all incoming cash ,pensions etc and when i do my accounts its easy take one from t'other and moved resulting cash into a savings account I also have a 'rainy day account that I save regularly in plus an Isa.I keep a 'float of around £20.00 in my main purse for 'Happy Cash ' for unexpected treats or things for my grandchildren Every one needs a cream doughnut now and again

:):)

snit_girl · 8 June 2016 at 5:31PM

I'm using the new B app that clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank launched. So far it has been great tracking my spending and has even put me off going to starbucks or asda for a pint of milk and buying loads of rubbish as I don't want it telling me about them, lol

PasturesNew · 8 June 2016 at 5:35PM

I started with a simple spreadsheet. Every time I buy stuff, as I come in, I drop the receipt on the PC keyboard. Then I input what I bought.

I then categorise it into just 3 categories at the start: Food, drink, Misc. Over time, as new breakdowns occur I can add a category, or add a new column for a sub-category.

But, I don't buy much, so we're probably looking at just 3 brief receipts/week.

dingdongsaving · 8 June 2016 at 8:48PM

I keep every receipt and enter them into our spend spreadsheet on a weekly basis at the same time as checking the spends against our online banking records.

Overall, our monthly spending page has rows for income, monthly direct debit outgoings and then these 'spends' which are not the same figure each month...these are broken down into categories: grocery, fuel, entertainment/eating out and other (e.g. new shoes for children, school trip costs, key cutting, dry cleaning of work suits etc.)

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tracking your spends

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