Greetings fellow mustachians, first let me share where I am coming from. I am from Curacao. I am 23 years old, you can call me Brian, our currency is Antillean Guilders and I am a Designer/Artist. You can find link to my stuff on my Forum Profile if interested.
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First let me note this down :1 US Dollars ($) = 1.79 Antillean Guilders (FL)Now I started working last month which is June, but didn't get a full salary because I started in the middle of the month. However now that we're reaching almost the end of this month, I want to start keeping track of things. But I am wondering how in-depth you have to go with money tracking? Because what I had in mind, is more like a general number for accumulated expenses.
I currently live with my parents and the advantage of that is of course I don't have to buy any food unless I want something different, since my parents takes care of that, and any other expenses. (Only one expense which is shared below)
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I know Mr. Moneymustache mentioned about saving 50 - 60% of your income, but in scenario like Curacao, to even begin doing that, you would need at least an income of 1500$, because things are quite expensive over here, and when we speaking of apartments, especially the ones that comes with electricity/internet/bathroom/good neighborhood, we're speaking in the range of 500$ to 650$
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So overall my list of expenses would look like so with the general idea I mentioned earlier, and not specifically tracking down what I bought at each store.
Monthly Salary : 1650 FL or 921.79$ (without deducted taxes and other things that gets taken away from a full salary) so lets say roughly it would get down to 1525 FL
Home Takeaway (Object to change) : 1525 FL / 851.96$
List of expenses :- 100 FL / 55.87$ - Bus commute
- 144 FL / 80.45$ - Outside Food (If I eat 3 times a week outside) (We speaking of 7$ local kriyoyo food, since I know that waking everyday to cook in the morning, and eat that cold during lunch is not goign to be good, and I know I dislike microwaving food due of taste change)
- 150 FL / 83.80$ - Daily needs (Shower, toothpaste etc.) but this mainly depends how long things last, most of the time things like these last me for at least 2 months.
- 100 FL / 55.87$ - ( Water and Electric expenses)
- 100 FL / 55.87$ - ( For buying food goods if I need to such as chicken, beans, rice etc.)
- 179.00 FL / 83.80$ - ( For getting out of the house, chillax at beaches or maybe hiking and whatnot or simply using this amount for online courses, tutorials etc.)
What will be left is : 752 FL (Minimum saving 750 FL / 418.99$, however the saving can become more depending on the month, but minimum is at least 50%.
All of this saving is only possible because I am currently living with my parents, but if I were living in an apartment, I would say the % would be far less which is around 10% of the salary.
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So to re-iterate the question, how extensive should you track down the amount of money you use. Like I want to keep things simple, and not track down every nuts and corners of where the money goes, but more of have a certain quota down, and not to pass that quota, and have a minimum that goes to saving.
What do you think? And what would you recommend to use for doing this type of thing? Will Google Spreadsheet works just fine since of course its already free and can open it anywhere you are.
Lastly, thank you for reading this whole journal of mine, really appreciate it.
