{"id":784,"date":"2008-07-01T13:04:02","date_gmt":"2008-07-01T20:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/01\/a-really-cheap-solution-to-overspending\/"},"modified":"2018-04-04T03:02:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T10:02:49","slug":"a-really-cheap-solution-to-overspending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/01\/a-really-cheap-solution-to-overspending\/","title":{"rendered":"A Really Cheap Solution to Overspending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/dannohung\/33077177\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/indexcards.png\" alt=\"IndexCards.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>How do you stay frugal without being miserly? I don\u2019t want to feel guilty every time I need to make a purchase. At the same time, without a budget and limits, my bank account would soon be empty. My solution to prevent overspending is sitting right next to my wallet.<\/p>\n<p>In my wallet I keep several index cards. Whenever I buy anything, I write down the date, what I purchased and how much it cost on the card. It\u2019s not an original idea by any means, but I\u2019ve found it is incredibly useful both for avoiding post-purchase guilt and overspending.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Writing Down Expenses Keeps You Sane<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My bank account keeps perfect records of every one of my transactions. Any purchases with debit, credit or checks will be measured automatically by my bank. Although there is merit to keeping a second set of records, I don\u2019t bother writing down every purchase just to prevent a typo.<\/p>\n<p>The real reason I started writing down all my expenses is that it makes me aware of how much money I am spending. It\u2019s easy to forget about expenses until you look at your monthly bank statement. By forcing yourself to write down any purchases, you are always aware of the outflow from your bank account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Measured, Will Improve<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think a lot of post-purchase uneasiness (for those of us not blessed with a carefree spending philosophy) comes from being unsure whether we are spending too much. If you have a snapshot of the last several days expenses in your wallet, you have a lot more clarity. You can avoid unnecessary expenses when your list is getting large and relax a bit if you\u2019re under budget.<\/p>\n<p>Each week, I transfer the items on my index card to a computer document storing my records for the entire month. Although I don\u2019t look at this list every day, it also helps me get a snapshot of what I have spent money on.<\/p>\n<p>This will give a better picture than bank\/credit card statements because you write your own descriptions. You won\u2019t wonder what a purchase was for, just because you don\u2019t recognize the store name.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re trying to be frugal and work within a budget, I think keeping a set of index cards is a must. Even if you can\u2019t control some expenses, writing down your purchases puts your finger on the pulse of your financial health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you stay frugal without being miserly? I don\u2019t want to feel guilty every time I need to make a purchase. At the same time, without a budget and limits, my bank account would soon be empty. My solution to prevent overspending is sitting right next to my wallet. In my wallet I keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[683,11],"tags":[117,40,119,114,118,115,116],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nc-career","category-financial","tag-budgeting","tag-finances","tag-gtd","tag-index-cards","tag-measurement","tag-money","tag-overspending","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Really Cheap Solution to Overspending - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/01\/a-really-cheap-solution-to-overspending\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Really Cheap Solution to Overspending - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you stay frugal without being miserly? I don\u2019t want to feel guilty every time I need to make a purchase. At the same time, without a budget and limits, my bank account would soon be empty. My solution to prevent overspending is sitting right next to my wallet. 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