One day, just as you are about to step out of the house, you take a look inside your wallet / purse. Then you realise you don't have enough money in it.
You think to yourself,"Hmm... I just withdrew a couple hundred bucks that day. Now where the heck did all the money go to?" Common situation right? Happens to me too ;-p
But the worse thing is that, by the time the 3rd week of the month comes, you go to the ATM and realise, "Shit, there isn't much money left inside too!" And this is a vicious cycle. Happens every month. And you still don't know where the money flew to...
And how do you stop this from happening?
My suggestion is: RECORD YOUR DAILY EXPENSES
Most of you would start to imagine yourself in the situation pictured above. Don't worry, it won't take you hours every night to do this. Its actually quite simple to do. If you do it daily, it will take less than 5 minutes. But if you do it weekly, it might take longer as you might need to try and remember where and how your money flew away.
All you need is either a notebook / diary or my fave, Microsoft Excel.
And for starters, you only need 3 columns: Date; Description of expense; Total / Cost
And all you need to do is fill it up daily. Petrol, toll, food, groceries and etc.
Its that simple!
Do it for a start, keep track for a few months and sooner or later, it becomes a habit.
And after a few months, you can begin to see patterns in your expenditure. You can then sort out which expenses are fixed and which one is variable.
That being said, you are already on your way to knowing and controlling your own money. And as the saying goes, you cannot master what you do not know ;-p
Happy tracking!!
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