How to Efficiently Track Your Expenses

For many people, just like making a budget, tracking expenses is one of the most boring and scariest activities ever! I know right? But of course, no matter how we dread doing it, it is still a must on our side if we want to take control of our finances. Usually, the leakage in our budget comes from the small foxes that we are not aware of.

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.”- Song of Solomon 2:15

In my last post, How to Make an Effective Zero-Based Budget, I discussed the first two stages of budgeting namely appraisal and planning. This time, I am going to show you how I track our expenses daily in order for us to monitor where our money exactly go or how do they exactly flow out of our life when we execute our spending plan (budget),making sure that we are still on the right track.

Why We Need to Track Our Expenses

When we started tracking our expenses, it showed us things like our spending issues, budget strategy issues and it made us understand why we’re on debt at that time. By looking at our spending habits, it also allows us to evaluate and come up with a strategy on how to get out of debt by changing the way we spend our money.

Ways on How to Track Expenses

Budgeting Apps – You can download a lot of these from App Store or Play Store. There are free expense tracking apps.
Spreadsheet– You can make one in Google sheets or you can also make it it Excel Sheet.
Envelope System – Here, you stick your money (according to your budget) inside an envelope, and then right down all expenses at the back of the envelope. When the money is gone inside the envelope, it’s gone. It’s also a good way to ensure that you are sticking to your budget.
Notebook & pen – For some, just like me, it is still more satisfying and comfortable to write things down by hand. But of course, I can’t bring a notebook always and it’s bulky so I opted using our Printable Tracking Sheet.
Expense Tracking Sheet – I am just making this sheet. I print it and stick it in my Budget Wallet.

This video below will discuss in detail how I use our Expense Tracking Sheet to monitor our expenses. By the way, you can get this sheet for FREE by filling out the form below.