I have been reading Crystal Paine’s book, “Say Goodbye To Survival Mode” this past month. There is one chapter where she stresses the importance of goal setting and remaining focused. One of her exercises in the books is to make your own personal goals and to write them down.
For the month of February, one of my goals is to keep track of our income and expenses down to the penny. My husband and I have never been big into budgeting, primarily because we spend only what are the necessities. However, the past few months, it seems like our finances have been extremely tight. So I decided that for the month of February, my husband and I will track our money and see if there are any “leaks” in our spending.
Since planning is essential to my success, I have been planning for the past week how I was going to accomplish keeping track of our finances. I made a simple spreadsheet that included the mandatory expenses for the month as well as our steady income. I was also thinking that I would trying using the “envelope system” that Dave Ramsey suggests in him book, “The Total Money Makeover”.
I created a basic Daily Expense Ledger for the month.
I wanted something easy that I could print out and jot down whatever we spent. I believe that my success is dependent on the ease of the system.
As you can see in the example above, the sheet is easy to fill in. Both my husband and I will be using this. Because his time is in high demand, I wanted this to be easy for him. Pretty much all I need for him to fill in is the date, description and amount. I will also attach an envelope to the sheet so we can stick any receipt in the envelope. I will be taking care of the rest of the form.
Quite honestly, I am very curious to see how the month turns out and what happens to our money. If you would like to join me for a month of tracking your money, feel free to download the simple daily expense ledger for your personal use.
Daily Expense Ledger
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