I made it to April 30th and through 30 DAYS of recording every.single.thing. I spent money on this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have never done this before in my life. I tried it two other times, but fell off in the second week both times. This time I stuck to it, recording every purchase in a little notebook daily.
Well, I just tallied up everything, and boy has this been an eye opening experience for me. I knew I had been wasting a lot of money, but WOW. This wasn't a good month spending-wise because I was way behind on electric bills and had a large one with fees to pay, plus I put a credit on that bill. I also paid double on my cell phone bill to have a credit for next month. I had to make a trip to the cleaners to get a bunch of slacks hemmed and cleaned I bought a few months ago.
The things I learned by doing this include:
-Not planning properly is costing me a lot of money. I've had times where I've been running late to work and when that happens, I have to take a cab to the train to make it on time. $$$ down the drain. On one day this month, I missed the train altogether and had to use a Zipcar, which was a whopping $80 for one day (I don't own a car).
-I'm still eating too much of my money. To be honest, this month wasn't 'too' bad; I've had months where I did just total up restaurant spending and it would be well over $300! I'm cooking a lot more and eating out less (ironically I just got invited to go out to eat this Saturday :/ It's hard...I gotta get smarter with this!)
-The little things really REALLY add up.....>>>fast>>>. And convenience costs. There is a 7 Eleven attached to the building I live in. So if I'm craving a grapefruit juice, just ran out of milk, or just want a snack, I'm there. I spent over $80 in that place in just one month. I had NO CLUE I was giving that place so much money.
I had mixed feelings about posting this but just wanted to share to inspire any one else who might be dealing with the frustration of feeling like your finances are 'out of control'. I wasn't raised to be financially savvy and never really learned how to budget. Often times I would spend freely and without much consideration to the consequences wasted money was having on my potential to accumulate money. I honestly feel like this is the first step to gaining control of my finances. My first goal was to get a new job/raise; I did that twice in the past two years. I'm still not where I want to be income-wise, but I'm a work in progress and am now focusing on maximizing my current income by adhering to a real budget for the first time in life.
I said I would significantly increase my savings (short term and retirement) with the new job this year, and in order to do that, I had to do this first. Lastly, now that I've done it, I plan to continue doing this until I can establish a better pattern in my budgeting practices.
Anyways, I digress. Feel free to face punch, comment, ask questions, etc.