As a single mom of two teenagers I needed to stretch my paycheck now more then ever. I knew where most of my money went but I needed to see where all of it went. I decided to do something I had done years earlier that I knew worked – track my expenses!
In the past I had used a small notebook to write everything in and then would total it all at the end of the month into a larger notebook. This did require a lot of work remembering to write things down and then all the calculating at the end of the month to see where all the money had gone.
I now have a smart phone, a Droid X, and I knew there had to be an app out there that I could use that would meet my needs. There were actually quite a few apps and because I was into saving money I knew I wanted a free one. I went through some of them before I found one called Expense Manager that was almost exactly what I was looking for.
I started this on the first of the month. I entered all of my current “cash on hand” which included my checking account and cash in my wallet. My information was relatively simple to input but now I had everything I needed to turn this into a money saving habit! I only had to follow three simple steps to make this work:
Track All of My Income – This included my paychecks, gift money, bonuses and any other money I received. I used my net pay for my paycheck since I needed to know exactly what money I was bringing in every month.
Track All of My Expenses – When I made any purchases I would add it into my phone app either manually or by taking a picture of the receipt. Whether it was to buy groceries or to pay the electric bill I entered it into the app. The key I found here is to be as specific or detail oriented as possible.
Monthly Totals – This is where things got exciting to me! My new phone app did all the totaling. I could now look at where I was spending money and be able to find ways to adjust it. In a sense I was finding money that I was wasting on things. I had no idea I spent so much on eating out which was neither beneficial to my health or my pocketbook. I adjusted that to buy more groceries which made my teenage son very happy!