Monday, 10 Nov 2008
Most sources agree that one of the first steps to taking control of your finances is to track your spending. I’ve done this for years – first, to get a better grip on my finances and now, just to see where the money goes. Traditionally, it has been a bit tedious to separate the categories (i.e. personal care, household, etc.) when you shop at a store like Target where you can buy any range of things. However, Target must be on the PF bandwagon because they’ve started making it easier.
I finally got around to entering (into Microsoft Money) some receipts over the weekend. I was pleased to discover that Target had already broken out the categories for me – accessories (an umbrella), clothing (shoe inserts), grocery (Halloween candy, snacks and mints), health and beauty (lotion) and stationery/office (tealight candles). With the exception of the candles, which I would categorized as household or miscellaneous, I found the Target categories to be spot on. Have you noticed any other stores doing something similar? How do you keep track of your spending, or do you? If not, why not?
November 13th, 2008 at 10:45 AM
This is a wonderful way of balancing your spending. If you want to splurge in one area, think about making deductions in another area. I will start to employ this method…thanks.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Ms Money Savvy-
I’m with a company called Validas and we can probably help you to get that Blackberry plan without paying too much. Check us out at http://www.fixmycellbill.com. We’ve been written up in BusinessWeek, the New York Times, and elsewhere – i.e. we are legit. Long story short – we’ll make sure you’re on the best plan possible based on how you use your phone so you don’t spend one penny more for wireless than you need to. We find that 80% of people are paying too much. In the spirit of the holidays, we’d like to offer our help for free. If you’re interested, drop me a line at ed@ejfmail.com