How to keep up with every penny spent

**ansley** · 07-07-2010, 12:53 PM

DH has finally agreed that we do too much impulse buying. This past weekend, he started giving me his receipts. I have at least 2 missing that I need to find.

I started a price book but how do I keep account of where every penny goes?

**frugalwarrior2** · 07-07-2010, 01:24 PM

Put your checking acct. online. If you bank online you know whats been processed before the statements. Use the checkbook register. Get checks that are duplicate in case you forget to write it in.
ATM used to kill us. I actually "borrowed" DH's and "lost" it. He was very immature w/ organization when we were young. He would hand me a wad and have not a clue what he spent the money on.

1st list all your bills. Payment and amt. Pay the fixed cost first-mortgage/rent,water,heat,electric,food. Next payments on loans-car,Credit cards,bank loans. That's whats left to work w/. Nothing more. People like to pretend CC limits are part of their income. We like to lie about how much we have. We did this for YEARS. That's what impulse buying is. Stealing from your future by enslaving you to your past.
WE are enrolled in the Dave Ramsey FPU class. I highly suggest it. He Says-Every Dollar has a name.
See if DH will write what he bought on the reciept. Everyone has to find a way for themselves.Price books aren't bad I just won't do that. You need a "blow money " category and that what he spends on. That don't even keep track of. Just make sure you have leftover money for the "blow" catagory.

**nuisance26** · 07-07-2010, 01:26 PM

~I don't track to the penny. I round receipts to the nearest $.50 mark. With all the entries that are made in my binder every month it saves a lot of time. And it saves me the aggravation of trying to figure out our year end totals and why they don't match up exactly to our income.
Some receipts are gonna get lost. Some purchases won't get recorded before they're forgotten and even if my ledger show a $642 difference at the end of the year I don't stress about it because I build a 10% cushion into the budget for oversights. HTH.~

**Libby** · 07-07-2010, 01:38 PM

I used to keep all receipts and one night a week I'd sit at the comp with a huge cup of tea and then key it all into a spreadsheet.

My headings were:
*date
*amount spent
*what was bought (groc, school supplies, cleaning, penalty fees, gift etc - just generalize it)
*how paid: had headings so all I had to do was put an X in the corresponding column - cash, cc1, cc2, etc
*need or want - same as above with corresponding columns

If I didn't have a receipt - I'd type in a general entry and fill it in with an approx $ amount of what I spent. I'd round up to help create a cushion in case it was something I paid via cc.

At the end of the 2nd week, I'd tally it up to see how much was spent via cash and cc then sort it out by which was a need and a want - then analyze what was purchased. From there, I just tried to limit my spending and cash flow so I couldn't give in to temptation.

**ansley** · 07-07-2010, 02:21 PM

The real problem for me is Wal-mart and the grocery store.

Last month we spent 2x what was budgeted for wal-mart but I don't know on what. If it is legitimate, I need to up the wal-mart budget. If not, I need to find out what the leaks are and stop them.

We have been buying angel food. Now that we need to serve 5 I thought we might try to grocery shop again. The price book is more to help me see how much we should spend based off the shopping list. Note: not everything is going to be in the sale paper. Last night I asked DH to pick up some cheese and flour tortilla shells. He came home with 3 different cheeses, the shells, 2 things of ice-cream, coke products and etc. If I could tell him, "you should spend about X amount." I think it would help control the impulse buying. I impulse buy too and need to find something that would help both of us.

The need vs. want is kind of how I was thinking of doing it, at least until I get a handle on it.

**Momto5RN** · 07-07-2010, 02:31 PM

i have 2 checking accts one is our regular joit acct one is one i opened when i sold on ebay that is in just my name .

i transfer the money for grocery shopping/ household needs into the 2nd acct so i cant go over budget - once its gone its gone and since that is the only thing i use that acct for i can keep track of what gets spent at grocery-walmart CVS etc.

**Libby** · 07-07-2010, 03:12 PM

ansley - Are you buying whats only on your list, do you go in with a list? You may need to factor in a lil extra set amount for loss leaders that may not be on your list but are too good to pass up.

Can you make it a game btwn you and DH on who can spend the least amount of $ for the max quantity of groceries that you need/eat? This may help him to only but what you ask him to pop in and pick up.

Set a limit of $10/wk (or whatever you can afford) and force yourself to decide how much of each loss leader to purchase (thats not on your list) to not exceed your $10 maximum.

IE: $10 in all canned veggies
OR
$10 in 3 pkgs of tp and 2 box cereal, chicken quarters and the rest in canned veggies.

You get the idea.

**frugal is fun** · 07-07-2010, 04:08 PM

I use my debit card for everything, almost never carry cash and I literrally have a sticky in my wallet and I record the amount every time I use my debit card.

I don't do this as a figuring out where the money went tool but to keep track of my balance. I only keep "spending" money in that account so when its gone, its gone.

Most purchases showup online immedately but there are still a few, like the pizza I bought over a week ago, that don't show up as quickly. Its very easy to forget about these purchases if you don't keep track on paper.

**frugal is fun** · 07-07-2010, 04:10 PM

A few months back I was behind a woman at the LLBean outlet here in CT and she had the prettiest little book I ever saw that she was using to record her purchases.

It becomes habit after a while, you buy something, you record the amount at the same time.

**TigerGirl1226** · 07-07-2010, 04:17 PM

I've recently started using mint.com. If you use your debit card, it tracks all transactions and categorizes them. You can customize and edit the transactions. edit to add: looks like you can add your cash transactions also!

It's really neat and easy to use. It links to your acct so you don't have to manually enter the transactions and it updates each night.

**ansley** · 07-08-2010, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by TigerGirl1226

I've recently started using mint.com. If you use your debit card, it tracks all transactions and categorizes them. You can customize and edit the transactions. edit to add: looks like you can add your cash transactions also!

It's really neat and easy to use. It links to your acct so you don't have to manually enter the transactions and it updates each night.

Can it tell me what was bought or just where and how much total?

I rarely shop. DH does most of it. We usually do a list over the phone and he supposedly writes it down. I usually never see the list or the receipt. I usually get the Rx filled and the last time I got DD and DS#2 a $1 coloring book each and I got a can of peanuts while we waited.

DH did give me one of the missing receipts last night.

I think the only way to do this is to take all the receipts and enter them in a spreadsheet with need/want beside each item and sort. I was just hoping there was a smarter way.

**frugalwarrior2** · 07-08-2010, 02:24 PM

DH sounds like the "leak". You need to say we don't have money for 3 cheeses,1 will do and ice cream in not on the list. Either that or over budget for extras. My DH is the other way. Goes in and gets exactly whats on the list. Milk could be marked down to .10 a gallon. I wish he would call.

**TigerGirl1226** · 07-08-2010, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by ansley

Can it tell me what was bought or just where and how much total?

I rarely shop. DH does most of it. We usually do a list over the phone and he supposedly writes it down. I usually never see the list or the receipt. I usually get the Rx filled and the last time I got DD and DS#2 a $1 coloring book each and I got a can of peanuts while we waited.

DH did give me one of the missing receipts last night.

I think the only way to do this is to take all the receipts and enter them in a spreadsheet with need/want beside each item and sort. I was just hoping there was a smarter way.

As far as I know it just categorizes not itemizes.

**ansley** · 07-08-2010, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

DH sounds like the "leak". You need to say we don't have money for 3 cheeses,1 will do and ice cream in not on the list. Either that or over budget for extras. My DH is the other way. Goes in and gets exactly whats on the list. Milk could be marked down to .10 a gallon. I wish he would call.

Okay, now you have me daydreaming about a gallon of milk for .10.

I keep telling my DH we need a goat.

**ansley** · 07-08-2010, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by TigerGirl1226

As far as I know it just categorizes not itemizes.

How would it categorize Wal-mart? Wal-mart is food, clothes, cleaning supplies, pet stuff, school stuff and etc with needs and wants in all those areas. Sorry for all the questions. I need to just look it up. Thank you for taking the time.