Every month during 2013 – as part of my New Year’s resolution – I am keeping track of my monthly expenses and income. March turned out to be the best month yet: despite a long driving trip to visit family during spring break, the IM family’s savings rate was the highest we’ve seen so far.

Keeping a detailed list of all expenses is eye opening, as it shows you exactly where all your money is going. I encourage everyone to give it a shot, at least for a month. You can use my badass expense tracker (Google Spreadsheet) to help.

Let’s do the numbers. Continue reading →

Each month – at least during 2013 – I have resolved to track all my household spending using my nifty expense tracker (Google Spreadsheet). February turned out to be a pretty good month, as my expenses were lower than January and my income was higher.

If you have never tracked every penny that left your wallet, I encourage you to give it a shot, at least for a month. The results can be eye opening and even embarrassing.

Let’s do the numbers. Continue reading →

Happy New Year.

At the end of 2012, I resolved to track all of my spending for the coming year using my nifty expense tracker (Google Spreadsheet). As suspected, it had an immediate effect on my spending level – the looming and ever-present task of having to manually write down each purchase made me think twice before whipping out my credit card. As a result, I feel confident that we spent less than if we weren’t tracking our spending at all. I encourage you to give it a shot, even for just a month.

Without further ado, here are the numbers. Continue reading →