PhilMur's thoughts on biz/tech/money/life

This past weekend my wife and I pulled out the ol’ budget and dusted it off.  As much as I talk about saving, being a good steward of your money, and creating and living according to the budget, I am not always perfect in following my own advice.  Yes, our family spends less than we make, and no, we don’t have consumer debt creating massive stress and fueling bad spending habits.  And yet, we don’t do a great job at watching our spending and then comparing it to our spending plan — our budget.  In fact, we are friends with a couple who do a much better job at this than we do, and I am glad for people like that in our life to remind me of this very necessary, helpful process.

So, from time to time, we have to pull out our budget, review it, compare it to actual results, and make changes up or down as needed in our budget to meet our present circumstances and needs.  That is always a sobering process but it is also a purifying process, as without a doubt I believe we (and everyone I know) spend less when we are aware of what we are spending than if we are swiping our debit cards blindly as the months pass.  Because if we are not monitoring our spending, we are very likely spending more than we intended.  And usually, that “accidental” spending is in areas that we could have done just fine in if we had spent less, thus freeing up more money to give, save, invest, etc.

Have you pulled out YOUR budget lately?  Have you compared your actual spending to your budgeted spending?  You may be surprised how much you learn about your spending, and change about it, just by looking at what it has been recently.

There are, of course, a million ways to track your spending–individual envelopes for cash designated for particular uses, or reviewing spending daily or weekly through their smartphone or PC.

We find that there are a few key areas that are easy to lose track of during the month (in particular, dining out and groceries for us).  Consequently, we have a sheet we keep hanging on our refrigerator to track daily food spending during the month.  That’s it.  Combined with a monthly review of spending that I categorize by downloading debit card transactions into MS Money, that has proven to pretty much do the trick.

So, do whatever YOU need to do to live according to the spending plan you (and your family, if applicable) have developed.