Do you ask yourself where the money went at the end of each week? Do you ever come up short on paying for bills and have to use a credit card, payday loan place, or borrow a ten off somebody until you are paid? These are signs that you are living beyond your means. Poor people do it, rich people do it, and five-year-old children do it. Here is how you stop.
All photos in this instructable are of my art work and are Copyright Lisa M. Yarost. All rights reserved. Please do not use these images elsewhere without permission! Thanks!
All photos in this instructable are of my art work and are Copyright Lisa M. Yarost. All rights reserved. Please do not use these images elsewhere without permission! Thanks!
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Signing UpStep 1: Write it down!
Find a notebook that will fit in your purse or backpack. If you're a guy and you just carry a wallet, then tuck a sheet of paper in there each month and carry a pen or pencil, even if it's one of those little golf pencils. From now on, you are going to track every single penny you make and every single penny you spend, when you spend it. If you buy a coffee on your way to work or a candy bar from the vending machine, write it down. When you have a bill or a bank fee deducted from your account, write that down. If you find a nickel in the sofa, write that down too. You want to know exactly what is happening to your money!
Here's a way most people cheat, and you don't want to cheat: If you go to the grocery store and take cash back, do not write that down as groceries. You haven't spent it... just taken it out of your account. You need to track what you do with it once it's spent. Likewise, if you go to a superstore like Walmart for your groceries, don't put your new CD that you picked up in your grocery expenses, just because you paid for it with your groceries. You want to know where the money really goes!
Here's a way most people cheat, and you don't want to cheat: If you go to the grocery store and take cash back, do not write that down as groceries. You haven't spent it... just taken it out of your account. You need to track what you do with it once it's spent. Likewise, if you go to a superstore like Walmart for your groceries, don't put your new CD that you picked up in your grocery expenses, just because you paid for it with your groceries. You want to know where the money really goes!
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I've been using Gnucash to track all my income and expenses for 2010, and it works really well. Free, fully customizable, and generates some great charts to illustrate how my money keeps disappearing. :)
BTW, Awesome artwork. Probably some of the more productive uses for money I've seen.
The most valuable tool I have found thus far: If you use online banking you can easily use software like Quicken, YNAB, or Mint.com to track your expenses and plan your budget. Once you get familiar with the software it is easy to not only track your spending but you can also forecast how much money you will have on any given date. Powerful stuff!
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