Need to track my Expenses - Where Should I Start?

dreaming

One way to understand where your money is going is to look back at "where it went". What I mean is to look at bank/credit card statements and try to identify the transactions into categories such as mortgage/rent. utilities. groceries. transport, entertainment, etc. Of course this does not work if you mainly spend cash but for me it is a good starting point to identify the needs from the wants and then start to budget. There is not a great deal you can do about certain costs such as mortgage and utilities (except making sure you are on the best tariffs) but if you identify that you are spending more than you thought on groceries, for example, then you can take steps to reduce that. I find that "treats" can easily become "habits" so that's something I try to manage.

Baldeagle095

MoneyPoint and Excel. Every transaction has been recorded there for last 3 years Builds up Income & Expense Account, Cash Flow Summary, Budgets etc. Only takes 5 minutes a day.
Keep absolute minimum in current accounts and transfer d.d.'s and standing orders from savings accounts when necessary.  Also never use cash!

sausage_time

I'd start with a spreadsheet.  I find it useful to split expenditure into categories, for example Supermarket, Drink, Eating Out, Takeaway, Car, Bills, Pets, DIY, Clothing, Holidays.  Record absolutely everything for a few months and look at the totals to see where it is going.  It can get addictive - I have recorded everything for nearly 40 years!  It's funny to look back at taking £5 out of the ATM on a Friday night - that must have been a wild one!

fifeken

Spending Tracker (or similar) app on your phone allows you to record all spend by category over a time period.  It's then easy to see where the potential savings could be.

I use Excel as a sort of higher level/longer term planning tool.

n15h

I did this years ago when saving for a house deposit. I started with placing all my spending using 1 account for direct debits/bills, and 1 credit card for day to day spending, shopping, etc. Simplifying it this way helped to manage and track my spending, which I then recorded on Excel using a simple spreadsheet. Once a month I'd review the 2 statements - 1 for current account, 1 for credit card and see my total outlay, what I was saving, and where my biggest spends were. Next month I would try to reduce by biggest outlays or beat the amount saved, and turned it into a game. If you find a way to enjoy doing it, it becomes less of a chore. More importantly, it made me build a habit of wisely spending and saving. 

Cisco001

Easiest way to manage the money is open 2 current accounts. One for receiving salary and paying regular household bills.
The other one is for a fixed sum of spending money for the month. 

Ch1ll1Phlakes

I've used excel for this for years though I manually add every transaction I make.

RobfromCornwall

Another vote for Excel.  It can do really complex things, but it can also be really simple.  I use a sheet for each month, copy and paste spending from current account and credit cards and then categorise (fewer categories the better, in my view).  You could probably do this now looking back a few months to see where money has gone. 

dunstonh

I used MS money in all its versions for over 30 years but switched to MoneymanagerEx some years back

MoneyManager Ex -

It's basically an open source version of MS Money.

And for east of budget, I have operated a number 2 current account (used to be called a budget account back in the day), where once a month a standing order pays a fixed amount to the number 2 account and all the fixed bills get paid out of the number 2 account.  Whatever is left in the number 1 account is available to spend/save etc.