Started tracking annual expenses... Oh boy.

**bjl584** · 01-13-2012, 10:47 AM

Is "Couponing" an expense, or is that a column that you created to see how much you save by using coupons?

**kork13** · 01-13-2012, 11:49 AM

I've been tracking my expenses for about 2.5 years now, and it's been pretty interesting (and useful) to see exactly where my money's going. Not only does it show me where I may be spending too much, but also where I'm spending very consistently -- food (including groceries and restaurants), for example, has been surprisingly constant for me from month to month, in spite of traveling every few months.

What I will say, though, is that your long list of categories would overwhelm me. I've got it VERY simplified, and only track it in 3 very general categories -- food, housing/utilities/auto, and "everything else". I add notes to each expense, so I can dig through it if necessary, but I think data entry would become a pain (personally). But good luck, and I'm sure you'll learn alot about your spending habits

**YLTL_Dan** · 01-13-2012, 12:00 PM

I used a similar system to take control of my money. I retroactively tracked my expenses for about a year and then tracked my new expenses for 6 months. This gave me a great idea of what my normal expenses were, and where I could cut down.

Since then (about two years), I've continued to use the Dave Ramsey envelope system, but I don't track my every expense. At a high level, we allocate the following cash amounts monthly for two of us:

Groceries - $500
Entertainment - $400
Clothes - $300
Dog - $100
Other - $200

We're not nearly as strict now that we have control of our money, but previously if we ran out, we had to stop spending. The key is to make it sustainable so you can follow it for a long time.

**pdweaver** · 01-13-2012, 01:05 PM

Wowsers!!! Thats quite a budget. If that works, then great!

I like to use Chase Banks Blue print feature on their credit card. Its free and tracks expenses, for the most part. Of course that wont track expenses such as your mortgage and some utilities, but it might help slim down your big budget and make things more simple.

I believe PNC also has its virtual wallet that helps keep track of your spending.

Either way good job on creating the budget, and good luck sticking to it...next month

**mrpaseo** · 01-13-2012, 07:18 PM

Originally posted by bjl584 View Post

Is "Couponing" an expense, or is that a column that you created to see how much you save by using coupons?

We just started couponing, this is expenses (Weekly Sunday papers, document protectors, tabs etc).

Thanks fro the question,
Ray

**mrpaseo** · 01-13-2012, 07:23 PM

I have a receipt rebuiler tab. basically I transfer each item amount to this spreadsheet placing them in their respective groups (Groceries, fuel, clothing etc). The second column has a percentage (8% or 9.5%) then the next column multiplies the cost of the taxes (That's what the percentages are). This process provides the total cost to include taxes for each item and groups them up. Yes, a little tedious but I want to sustain this for as long as I can (At a minimum of three months to get a good snapshot).

Thankfully, the DW is on board.
Ray

**Like2Plan** · 01-14-2012, 07:42 AM

Ray,
Congrats on your detailed tracking. I did something similar last year as I was preparing to retire. It can be an eye-opener. One category that surprised me was insurance expenses (I am going to make a new thread on the ins topic as I don't want to derail your thread

)
Other categories were not much of a surprise, but my goal this year is to reduce spending in some of the fixed spending categories. It makes the analysis a lot easier when it is all before you in a spread sheet.

**myrdale** · 01-18-2012, 12:41 PM

I have been keeping a spread sheet very similar to that for about 3 years now. My categories are a little more broad though.

Utilities
Food
Gasoline
Takeout
Bar
Stuff
Other
Clothing
Luxury

There may be one or two other fields but that is basically it.

Gas, electric, water and cable are all wrapped up in utilities.

Takeout includes soda's / junk food from station in addition to any fast food or restaurants.

I typically roll any restaurant expense that the price of the alcohol was half or more into the bar field, these are few and far in between though. Also if I pick up the occasional 6 pack it is rolled in.

Stuff is pretty much anything I really didn't need. In other words any Walmart purchase.

Other is expenses that were necessary. Insurance, car repairs, etc.

Luxury is saved for the blow money, whether it is movie tickets, or hobby type stuff.

It is eye opening though when you have all these numbers in front of you and you realize that you spent $400 that month just eating out.

**ecoadapt** · 01-18-2012, 02:50 PM

Having a track on your expenses is really great. In doing this you can surely see where your money goes and you can also save! I'm starting to track our expenses! And,it's not really easy task!

**LMA** · 01-19-2012, 09:56 AM

First of all congrats, keeping a budget like that will be an eye opening experience. I just finished closing our expenses for 2011 and when I compared them with 2010 and 2009 quickly noticed that almost everything went up

Just FYI we are a family of 4 and our groceries budget is $700/monhth. We put a premium in buying quality food so we are willing to pay more if it;s good stuff. But still we have to use our coupons and not buy crap because we can blow through that $700 fairly easily.

You will see over time one of two things:

You need to spend wiser so that you can make your budget

Your budget is unrealistic and you need to take money out of somewhere else and increase your groceries budget

Also, FWIW I think having so many categories in your budget is overkill. I always suggest keeping it as simple as possible so you ensure you will stick with it. Just a suggestion...

**Mr Tipps** · 01-27-2012, 05:42 PM

Great to see that you have taken an active approach to saving. It is pretty scary though when you track where all your money goes isn't it? Once you do this though you really start to ask yourself if purchasing something is really necessary and when the answer to that is "No" you have saved there as well!!

Just remember to constantly re-evaluate to make sure you are on the correct path!

Good luck!

**mrpaseo** · 02-02-2012, 02:25 PM

Soon I will be transitioning to a new career (Been in this one for about 20 years now) and with the possibility of a pay cut, my wife and I thought it best to see exactly where our money is going. Here is the breakdown, below are some notes.

As you can see, I am tracking category, Month totals (Actually spent), Planned amount and the percentage spent vs. planned. Let me run thru the categories.

Mortgage: House is paid off.

Water: Typical amount.

Electric: Typical amount for this time of year.

Cell Phone: Typical amount for three phones, two with unlimited data and all three with unlimited texting.

Home Entertainment: This is my cable (Internet and TV) and my netflix payments.

Allowances: This is typical for all three of us.

Supplements: Had enough to cover this month in the budget. None carried over.

Animal Care: We now have two cats. Cat tree (Great deal), both cats spade (Unusual bill) and some cat treats.

Gift/Holiday Funds: Random gift fund (Birthdays, Halloween, etc.) Everything except Christmas.

Vehicle Fuel: Though we were almost spot on with this, a lot more went to one vehicle than I thought.

Groceries: We were almost spot on with this one too, our planned amount is $600, $635 isn't that much off but we did pick up our Coupon use and we did purchase a few bulk items.

Dining Out: OMG... I knew this category would be larger than I thought but I expected around $400 a month... This amounts to 46 random purchases, from a quick coffee to a steak dinner. None of them planned.

Entertainment: This is family fun, this months money went to a visit to the movie theater and a few books.

Clothing: I purchased a new outfit for an interview... The day of the interview the guy called me and told me to dress casual, to not dress up...lol. Oh well, I have some nice clothes now. This month we all got new clothes.

Dental: That 500 is an error, I don't spend anything on dental, this was probably projecting for post retirement which will probably be more like $100 a month for the three of us. That said, nothing spent on dental this month.

Vehicle Insurance: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Motorcycle Insurance: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Home Owners/Hazzard Insurance: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Life Insurance: None spent but money is saved for quarterly payment.

House Taxes: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Christmas: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Vacation: None spent but money is saved for annual payment.

Vehicle maintenance: We put tires and breaks on the SUV and an airbag sensor came on on the compact veh.

Motorcycle Maintenance: The HD is put up for the winter, no maint done but money is saved for annual maint.

House Maintenance: We painted one room and put some closet shelving in another.

Debit: I forgot to add one payment. We have only the HELOC, no CC's, no veh loans, no other loans.

Emergency Fund: Our E-fund is fully funded, we allot $100 a month in our budget but if we do not use the E-fund, this $100 is put back into the spendable pile.

Investment: College Fund, another one that I missed, we have a Upromise account set up to automatically add $50 dollars a month.

Investment: Retirement, we did not invest it but we are currently reserving $100 a month for retirement (Roth IRA). We are also investing in my wife's 401k so I need to add this too.

Investment Savings: We did not move it but we have $100 in the bank for this.

Beauty: Hair cuts and eye brows...

Couponing: 9 Pocket card holders and newspapers.

Home (Furniture/dishes etc): Coffee mugs, Picture Frame, Blow dryer, Cushion Back Heat/Massager, Tupperware, Shelf.

Yard Maintenance: None

Miscellaneous: Resume paper, Military Ball Ticket,
Leather Portfolio (work).

Tools: I purchased a large tool box this month.

Over all, not so bad. We are going to try to cut down on the "Dining out". Hopefully February will be a better month.

Opinions are welcomed,
Ray

**mrpaseo** · 02-02-2012, 02:27 PM

$3,925.50 monthly

**snafu** · 02-04-2012, 04:24 AM

Interesting project. Now that you've identified eating out as being more costly than budgeted and not planned, what action will you and other family members take to stop the leakage? Will family get onboard with the plan? Will you set a criteria for eating out like Birthdays, Anniversary, Valentine's Day, new career, out-of-town visitors, Father's Day, Mother's day etc? Do you have a menu plan? It helps to know what will be served and let rote take over when you return from a busy day.

What responsibility will you accept? Perhaps prep Sunday's meal or make a Pasta entree every Monday? Clear the fridge, leftover dinner each Wednesday? Grocery shop big box store? Freezer content inventory?

Can children prepare one meal per week? Teaches team work, responsibility and 'how to' as preparation for when they go to college.

Good luck with the project, I know you more than most, have the determination to carry it through for the year.

Started tracking annual expenses... Oh boy.