Money Watch – Personal Finance Blog

After several failed attempts, I’ve now finally got the hang of keeping track of my spending using Expensr.

There’s been no particular trick to nailing it down this time, other than trying to remember all my transactions and recording them as soon as I possibly can – seems to be working.

Analysing my spending has been interesting; last month’s spending has been a little out of the ordinary, as I’ve brought a bike and had a trip to a wedding in Ireland, along with some spending for our wedding in May (this is likely to be a regular occurance in the next few months). And this month we’ll have Christmas to pay for, which we’re trying to keep low-key this year.

All would be setup well for this month, except unfortunately, there have also been another couple of unexpected events which could lead to more expense this month.

Firstly, my main PC appears to have died. Whilst it doesn’t need immediate replacement, I’m now relying on my laptop for internet access, online banking, blogging etc., and it’s much less robust than the PC should anything happen to it (probable with our kids around). So ideally the PC will be replaced, and that should have been done this month – until my car decided to die.

So now we’re waiting to see how much the repairs will cost – if they’re over a certain amount, I’ll probably scrap the car and we’ll make do with just one (the original reason I purchased a bike). 

Whatever happens, it will all be recorded for later analysis. Of course, where tracking your expenses really comes into its own is in helping you cut down on any regular unnecessary spending, rather than for unexpected purchases, and I’m now better set to identify where I can cut my spending as I have the data in front of me, something I’ve not had before.

Do you track everything you spend? How has it helped you cut back or keep to a budget? Let us know in the comments below.

photo credit: Thomas Claveirole