http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/ Personal finance, commentary, and spending less the easy way Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:24:44 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/comment-page-1/#comment-115265 Michael Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:11:34 +0000 http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/#comment-115265 My tracking method may not work for everybody. First, you use a credit card that you pay off every month and which gives you cash or some other reward. Charge everything possible here unless yu get a better deal on special things such as gasoline from another card.After you receive the monthly bill, go through all the receipts (you'll probably already have them in roughly chronological order in your file). Categorize as you enter them.Set aside those you need for tax purposes. I use paper because it's quick and portable. I keep a tally of cash expenses, which isn't time consuming because I don't use cash when I don't have to. If you use department store, gas or specialized cards (LL Bean, for example), the tally is usually simple. You can usually keep it in your register for check or online payments: "LL Bean card: $___ clothes, $___household." My tracking method may not work for everybody. First, you use a credit card that you pay off every month and which gives you cash or some other reward. Charge everything possible here unless yu get a better deal on special things such as gasoline from another card.After you receive the monthly bill, go through all the receipts (you’ll probably already have them in roughly chronological order in your file). Categorize as you enter them.Set aside those you need for tax purposes. I use paper because it’s quick and portable. I keep a tally of cash expenses, which isn’t time consuming because I don’t use cash when I don’t have to. If you use department store, gas or specialized cards (LL Bean, for example), the tally is usually simple. You can usually keep it in your register for check or online payments: “LL Bean card: $___ clothes, $___household.”

]]> http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/comment-page-1/#comment-114580 mbhunter Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:10:17 +0000 http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/#comment-114580 Raymond: Looking over the receipts is how I hope to find the weak spots in our spending. Then we can practice targeted frugality. (At least we'll know what we have to cut back on the most.) Raymond: Looking over the receipts is how I hope to find the weak spots in our spending. Then we can practice targeted frugality. (At least we’ll know what we have to cut back on the most.)

]]> http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/comment-page-1/#comment-114507 Money Blue Book Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:11:32 +0000 http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2008/01/08/track-expenses-slowly/#comment-114507 Does tracking your expenses so closely really pay off? Perhaps simply adopting a broad frugal approach is the way to go. It just sounds so extremely time consuming with all those receipts. -Raymond Does tracking your expenses so closely really pay off? Perhaps simply adopting a broad frugal approach is the way to go. It just sounds so extremely time consuming with all those receipts.
-Raymond

]]>