stimulus

hammy likes to watch grace and i budget

did you get your stimulus check yet? did you spend it? i'm not going to berate you about spending it - don't worry! but maybe it's a good time to start a little experiment: tracking your expenses. (am i beating a dead horse yet?)

here's what you should do. start tomorrow. monday is a great day to start!

1. get a little plastic bag and put some sticky notes and a pen in it.
2. put it in your purse. (or if you're a dude or lady that doesn't use a purse, use your pocket)
3. every time you make a purchase and you get a receipt, put it in the bag. this includes printouts of online receipts.
4. if they don't give you a receipt (like at the coffee cart), write the amount on the sticky note with the pen.
5. next sunday, take all the receipts out of the bag. open up excel. start a register for your expenses with the following columns:
date, type of expense (food, entertainment, personal, etc), name of expense (cup of coffee at gorilla) and amount. the last column should be the running balance. (if this is confusing, i can send you an already made spreadsheet- just email me at letsalleatcake at gmail dot com)

this whole process will maybe take you an extra hour over the whole week and is a great way to start becoming more aware of your finances.