Four years ago my hubby asked me how much we spend on groceries each month. I really didn't know the answer to that, other than giving a good guess. We decided to track ALL our household expenses for a couple of months....that couple of months turned into nearly four years and has been an exercise well worth doing.
It takes a bit of time to write down daily purchases but nothing too overwhelming. We write everything down - even dollar store purchases. I suppose we could use the computer for tracking expenses, but I'm a paper and pen type of person.
We have an account type book with 11 columns going across:
Date and Name of Store
Grocery
Clothing and Household (shampoo, toilet paper etc)
Utilities (hydro, gas, water, telephone)
Gas and other vehicle expenses
Vitamins/Medical
Taxes/Travel/Insurance
Missions/Church/School Donations
Miscellaneous
Home/Yard Improvements
Each month we tally up each column and then come up with the total expenditures for the month. Having done this now for a good length of time, helps us to compare and stay on track.
I'll sign off with a quote, "Live simply so others can simply live"
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