PSA: Track every dollar for three months before you touch a single budgeting app

I was dead set against logging every little coffee and gas station snack, but after trying YNAB for 60 days my savings grew $450 and I finally saw where my money was actually going, has anyone else found that manual tracking beats the apps at first?

3 comments

3 Comments

paul_thompson6725d ago

Respect the hell out of this approach. I did the same thing last year with a spiral notebook and a pen, not a single app. Wrote down every pack of smokes and drive-thru breakfast I bought. It was annoying at first, but after about six weeks I noticed I was spending almost $200 a month on just gas station coffee and energy drinks. Never would have caught that with an app summarizing my categories. The apps are great once you know where you bleed, but nothing hits like seeing it in your own handwriting.

angelac6322d ago

Used to think going digital was the only way to go until I tried this after reading a post by @ericfox. Spent a month writing down every single coffee run and snack purchase in a little notebook. Seeing those ten dollar trips add up to over 300 bucks that month was a real eye opener. Totally agree that apps smooth things out later, but writing it by hand makes it stick in your brain.

ericfox25d ago

That handwritten gut check hits different when you physically watch the numbers climb in your own scrawl.