Do You Track Your Spending Activities?

mathjak107 said:
I only track the total as we go along ..we have no budget issues so I don’t really need to know where it is going ...whatever we are doing we are going to keep doing ...I can get a ballpark automatically on fidelity full view and pretty much see what went where . But I have no reason to , other than just make sure we are on track
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Ditto.....
 

I can pretty well tell what we spend as 99% goes on our Credit card, which pays back 11/2% monthly. About the only thing that doesn’t go on the card is our car lease payment and electric bill which stay about the same month to month. Living on a fixed income monthly, one has to be careful not to go wild.
 
I don't track our spending by item, but I am always aware of what we are spending. Like Pappy, we use our credit cards for just about everything (the cash back is too good to pass up.) I check the accounts online often and keep a little notebook on my desk with running balances of the two credit cards we use. If I want to see a breakdown of spending, I look at the financial breakdown provided by both credit cards online.

Since our basic expenses are low and we don't buy on a whim, I don't worry about overspending. I've always shopped sales, compared prices, and negotiated for the best prices. I admit to being frugal in most things. We aren't big spenders, but we don't hesitate to buy those things most important to us.

I feel it's important to monitor spending in case something goes a little screwy, but I don't keep records of every dollar spent. It's not like a one-time increase of $10 monthly for electric is going to make me cut back on the air conditioning, but an increase of $50 will make me question if something is going on like a problem with the meter.
 

One note on food spending: Food spending does not mean you eat X number of dollars per month. Examples are seasonings, cooking oils, salad dressings, etc. You buy them today but they last for weeks and months.
 
Pappy said:
I can pretty well tell what we spend as 99% goes on our Credit card, which pays back 11/2% monthly. About the only thing that doesn’t go on the card is our car lease payment and electric bill which stay about the same month to month. Living on a fixed income monthly, one has to be careful not to go wild.
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you got to love that term " living on a fixed income ". it's like most workers live on a fixed income too if they don't get raises . at least ss and many pensions get cost of living raises .

some like ourselves have a bigger retirement income from investments then we did working ..so this term living on a fixed income really is silly. ss is no more a "fixed income " then working can be .

the term fixed income just means you get the income on a schedule . it has nothing to do with the amount or what it buys . the term has been mis-used to conjur up visions of an old women counting pennies in her purse to buy bread trying to make the most of her ss check . but the term really has nothing to do with an amount or what it buys or even wealth status ..

"Fixed income investments generally pay a return on a fixed schedule, though the amount of the payments can vary. Individual bonds may be the best known type of fixed income security, but the category also includes bond funds, ETFs, CDs, and money market funds.
 
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mathjak107 said:
you got to love that term " living on a fixed income ". it's like most workers live on a fixed income too if they don't get raises . at least ss and many pensions get cost of living raises .

some like ourselves have a bigger retirement income from investments then we did working ..so this term living on a fixed income really is silly. ss is no more a "fixed income " then working can be .

the term fixed income just means you get the income on a schedule . it has nothing to do with the amount or what it buys . the term has been mis-used to conjur up visions of an old women counting pennies in her purse to buy bread trying to make the most of her ss check . but the term really has nothing to do with an amount or what it buys or even wealth status ..

"Fixed income investments generally pay a return on a fixed schedule, though the amount of the payments can vary. Individual bonds may be the best known type of fixed income security, but the category also includes bond funds, ETFs, CDs, and money market funds.
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mathjak.....thanks for setting me straight on the fixed income statement. I’ll try to think of a new, exciting name for it. Pappy
 
I save all receipts, even when I stop at a convenience store for car gas, I ask for one. At the end of the year, I add everything up and see what I had spent on things like food, insurance, medical co-pays, home & car maintenance, taxes, etc. Not having a credit card requires more bookkeeping.
 
When I was poor girl (my 20's and early 30's) making a budget and tracking my spending are what allowed me to be able to "make a dollar out of 15 cents" as the saying goes. It became a habit that I can't break. Enter the computer age. I have two spreadsheets. One self generated where I lists my anticipated monthly expenses. The other is by Vertex with the actual income and spending amounts that self tallies by month and annually. It can probably be said that I micro-manage all aspects of my finances and I enjoy doing so. It's almost like a hobby for me. An added benefit....when it's time to to report certain things for tax purposes and calculate what my Zakat (obligatory charity) should be...the figures are right there. I don't have to rummage through papers and spend hours trying to figure things out.
 
In my working days I was an accountant. Out of habit, I have always tracked money flow coming and going in personal life.
Even today, I do a ledger sheet monthly of expenses, even though it's not very involved anymore. .. helps me see the big picture, and that way I don't forget to pay something.
 
**Thread Resurrection Alert**

I've done spreadsheets since the days of Visicalc in the 80s, so I track everything. I bought a new car a year ago and the mileage/brand/octane/#gallons for every tank of gas is in a spreadsheet.

I tracked every penny spent by category for a year when I first went on Social Security. I logged every expense from my credit card statement and kept cash receipts.

The only thing that shocked me was how much I spend each month on groceries (over $300/month for a single guy.) This is just foodstuff, no household products in that number I rarely buy stuff unless it is on sale. I buy meats when they're marked down, then vacuum seal and freeze them. I don't drink alcohol or buy packaged prepared foods. $10/day just seems high to me, but that's only $3/meal.

I could figure out where that money is being spent if I wanted to put forth the effort, but there's nothing I would change or give up cooking, so I'm not gonna bother.

Other than that, there were no surprises.
 
Yes we track our money and it’s enabled us to pay off both of our cars completely and also our home, we do not purchase anything we can’t pay off immediately, and we have no outstanding loans and have emergency savings. It gives our family a great peace of mind especially during emergency times such as these happening today....I see people living beyond their means and then end up in desperate straits when emergencies happen. I wish they would reconsider their lifestyle and save for a rainy day, it gives you a tremendous peace of mind. We are not wealthy people and have sacrificed over the years in order to obtain gratification in the long term, when I hear people say I don’t have enough money to save I know that we could’ve used the same excuse, but we know that it can be done as we and our lifestyle are proof of it.
 
mathjak107 said:
I only track the total as we go along ..we have no budget issues so I don’t really need to know where it is going ...whatever we are doing we are going to keep doing ...I can get a ballpark automatically on fidelity full view and pretty much see what went where . But I have no reason to , other than just make sure we are on track
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Similar, direct deposit from sources & the account has more in it at the end of every month. Have to say though my wife is trying to reduce that by buying stuff online.
 

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