In January, Jon and I decided to start tracking our spending–all of it. Every $1 donation to a homeless person, every $2 cup of coffee, every 50 cent pack of gum. We did it through the end of April (well, to be honest we weren’t really all that careful in the last couple weeks of the month). So why did we stop?
We learned a lot. We learned about the tyranny of unexpected expenses. We learned that those small purchases don’t really add up to all that much–in three months, we only spent about $80 of under-$2 purchases. We learned that one $400 airplane ticket will totally upend our budget–but that it’s okay, we can recover.
We always know how much we’re spending. I balance my checkbook at least twice a week, and Jon does as well. (It’s one of his favorite things to do.) I have a portion of my paycheck sent to my savings account, and a portion sent to my checking. Sometimes I need to put some of that savings account money into my checking account, but I always know exactly how much I’ve done that in any given month. I can easily calculate exactly how much money has gone into and out of my account at any given time.
We got sick of it. Let’s face it, it’s boring. Even for essentially dull people like us, who like doing boring things.
