Budgeting

Save Your Receipts and Statements

• Step 1: Starting today, save every single bill statement, receipt, or check that crosses your desk for at least one month, preferably three months.
• Keep a “spending notebook” in your pocket.

Sort Your Receipts and Statements

• Step 2: Take all of the receipts/statements/notes/etc. you saved up and start making piles on the floor in a way that makes sense to you.

Tally Them Up

• Step 3: Add up the totals on all of the receipts and statements in each pile, then divide these totals by the number of months you’ve been saving data.

Find the Fat

• Step 4: Go through each category and find ways you could reduce your spending in each one.

Try It Out

• Step 5: Work hard to stay within your target numbers in each category for the next month.

Rinse and Repeat