Loading…
19
I finally tracked every dollar for 30 days and found $212 I didn't know I was spending
My coworker Dana mentioned at lunch on Tuesday that she and her husband write down every single purchase in a notebook, even a $1.50 coffee. I figured that was overkill, but I tried it anyway for one month starting in April. Turns out I was dropping about $7 a day on stuff I could not even remember buying, mostly snacks at the gas station near my office and random app purchases. That added up to $212 by the end of the month. It was not one big thing, just a bunch of small ones I never noticed. Has anyone else tried the notebook thing, or do you use an app instead?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
spencer_hayes7111h ago
Man, reading this felt like looking in a mirror. I tried the notebook thing last year after my wife bet me I couldn't stick with it for a month, and I lost that bet but I also found about $180 I was blowing on vending machine junk and in-app stuff. What really helped me was switching to just checking my bank app every Sunday night and writing down anything I didn't remember, since carrying a notebook around got old fast. The gas station snack runs were my worst habit by far, so I started keeping a bag of almonds in my desk drawer and that alone cut out most of it. It's wild how the small stuff sneaks up on you, and I still catch myself doing it sometimes.
6