I Don’t Want To Be Known As A Penny Pincher

Being mindful of where you spend your money can seem like a daunting task. But if you don’t know where you are spending your money you can be broke before you get paid! So unless you have that magical genie in your pocket that allows you to pull the exact change from your pocket every time, you will need to account for your spending. And no, I am not talking about a credit card either!

So what do you do if you don’t want to appear to others as a penny pincher? Well you keep your receipts and you count your pennies at home. Keep a log at home of everything you buy or if you are so inclined, keep a record online somewhere. There are many apps and places online that you can keep track of your spending. Some are simple like a Google Doc spreadsheet or an Outlook spreadsheet. Both are free and both are related to an email address that you would need to access the spreadsheet. So if you have an @gmail.com or @hotmail.com you have access to free spreadsheets.

To set up one of these spreadsheets is quite simple. You only need 2 columns to start with: Store and Amount. In the first column you simply put the name of the store you bought from, and the second the total of how much you spent, including taxes. This is just to get the ball rolling. Once you get accustom to entering your information, you can expand on the columns you have to include the various items you choose to track. So perhaps you can have a pre-tax and a tax column and then you can see how much you are spending just on tax alone. Should you start a business, this information and breakdown will be VERY useful!

Ask anyone who is in the financial field who wants to help get others out of debt about how to go about it, and they will certainly advise to keep track of what you spend. So make sure that you get over what others think when it comes to your finances.