Tracking your spending

There's a couple different methods to tracking spending. Some are more complicated than others, but figuring out which one works for you is the the best route.

Some people like to track their spending in different categories. So you have the excel spreadsheet that has stuff like "housing", "car", "pets", "groceries", whatever in columns and you put in your individual items.
I use a modified version of this. Anything I go over in one category (usually something like groceries if there's a big sale or pets if somebody needs to go to the vet) has to get stuffed into something else. (Usually entertainment or miscellaneous).

Others have a set spending amount each month and just enter bills as they come in. They know how much money they have left at the end of each month.

Another way to keep it even more simple is to use Wealth Pilgrims model. He uses his bank statements and tracks the total expenditures (usually called withdrawals) on his statement and calculates a moving average. If it's coming in lower then what he makes, great! If it isn't, obviously something needs to be tweaked.


Depending on if you just care that you're still cash-flow positive or want to know where all your money goes will indicate what plan works for you. If you like many people are actually in the negative cash-flow zone, then focus on cutting expenses and increasing your income.