How Do You Keep a Record?

squeaky

For my main shop, keeping track is easy because it's an Asda till receipt. For the top up shopping in the village I work from my "ready cash counted in my pocket". I know for sure that my "allowance" should comfortably last the month and leave room for a little set aside and the odd treat too.

Mostly, in my head, I'll go shopping with a short list for salad bits or milk and have some idea of what I expect it to cost. After leaving the shop I reckon up in my head and think did I spend more, or less, than I expected and did I get more, or less, for my money.

That gives me a rough "I'm up" or "I'm down" tally without ever knowing any details.

My next shop is either a little more frugal or more liberal depending depending on being up or down.

That and the fact that I can count the "top up money in my pocket" and see how much I've got to spend for the rest of the month.

I've just never felt the need to be precise although you can be sure I'm always watching

Chipps

When I've needed to write down amounts cos theres no receipt, and had no notebook with me, I put the amounts on the "reminder" section of my mobile phone

elvis_bloggs

Make a note of how much money you leave home with, then how much you have when you return, do a quick subtraction of how much is missing the tally up with receipts, what is not accounted for is what you have spent on items without a receipt obviously, a good memory helps recall how much those items were...anyway...I always note down how much I leave home with and then how mucn I return with.

mhoc

What about a white sticky label stuck to your purse or shop bag and scribbling on that as you go along.

Mary

sicker

Buy a cheap personal hand held dictation machine.

today 13/05
grocer cheese £1.50
eggs £3

newsagent daily mail .90p

Transfer each night to pc spread sheet.
Great idea, must do it myself.

John

jaybee

I've got a PDA and love it (but I am a bit of a gadget freak:rolleyes: ). It is brilliant for shopping lists - I use a programme called SplashShopper. Once you've got your basic list in you can see how much you are spending, what you need, etc. You can also have different lists for different shops.

Before that, I relied on a piece of paper:D

Kimberley

I must get one, where can i get one cheap? I was using a note book but after 3 days of writing everything down i gave up

or one of these a cheap personal hand held dictation machine.

Sarahsaver

i stick to cash nowadays, £20 for the week, in a separate purse, no need to write stuff down then;)

fostermoss

I have in the past when buying from markets, either asked the seller or written the price on myself as i pay for it, they are usually paper bags though!