Do You Track All of Your Expenses?

Keeping track of your budget involves a fair bit of math, which can eventually get overwhelming. While some suggest you can’t really manage your budget without tracking all your expenses, others suggest you only need to cover a few key points. Which do you prefer?

Personal finance blog Daily Worth suggests that everyone needs to track their expenses for at least a few weeks for one very important reason: identifying your patterns. You may not need to keep track of every penny forever, but, Daily Worth says, you need to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie:

Closely tracking where your money goes for a few weeks, though, can be incredibly helpful. If you haven’t done so before, chances are good you’ll find a few shockers. For us, it was how much we spend on food, especially eating out, and the U-verse bill, which likes to climb into the stratosphere every time I look away.

Whether or not (or how long) to track your money is a surprisingly contentious topic. While some like Daily Worth suggest it’s necessary, others suggest that as long as you have your bills and savings set up to occur automatically, you can spend however you want. How much do you track your money? If you only do it for a short time, how often do you check again to adjust your budget? And how has tracking improved your financial life (or not)?

Do You Know How Much You Spend? Start Tracking | Daily Worth

Photo by pshegubj.

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