It helps some people. Not all. For many people though, they realize they are spending hundreds of dollars a month on expensive take out coffee they don't actually enjoy more than coffee 1/3 the price at the corner store, $15-$17 sandwiches they don't enjoy more than a $8 subsan at their desk or something from home, a $20 a day drink bill that means nothing to them, really and it can easily add up to $20-$30+ a day ($400-$600+ a month) that is slipping through their fingers nearly without notice. Writing things down can come as quite a surprise.
People who own businesses need to write down every little thing (for the government and taxes).
For individuals though if you use credit cards you can see where everything is going. On a personal level you'd need a "budget" plus another document with running totals, for instance:
Budgeting might have a list of things you pay monthly like:
Rent, electric, water/sewer, phone, car payment, gas, laundry, healthcare, creditcard 1, creditcard 2, groceries, postage, etc.
then you'd list the extra items you might pay out for instance car tags.
And on that budget you should list how much you need to pay each, when they are due, the check number you wrote or date you paid or called in the payment.
The second document you should have could look like this
How much you have in checking and savings at the beginning of the month
How much you owe as of a certain date for each bill that comes in monthly, the date you paid, the ending balance.
So at the end of each month you can see exactly how much you still owe.
You can save money only if you know where you stand monetaily, how much extra money you have, or can see where you can cut your expenses so that you CAN save.
Some people work for companies that have a 401K that the employer matches your contribution. Or you can get a Roth on your own. You can get a second or third job. You can not spend so much, or you can invest and make your money work for you.
So instead of bothering your husband about what he spends just have him use a low interest credit card (everything will be listed on there) and pay off that card balance as quickly as you can.
simply writing monthly expenses will not help. You should try to reduce your expenses by having an idea of monthly expenses. Don forget to award best answer if u like.
It helps, but only if you actually do something with that data. Merely recording data is not in and of itself the solution -- it is merely a means to implement a solution. You must have the data before you can understand what needs to be improved.
It should help because it shows you what and where you are spending your money on , however keeping a note of spending can only ever help if you look at the spending trends and alter your spending patterns cutting out spending on items that you currently wast money on.
never did that and not wasting your money, especially if u do not have any, on stupid, unnecessary things is the best way to save them
It sure does
