Financial gurus spend a lot of time talking about the importance of a holiday budget. What these experts don’t always tell you, though, is the best way to track your holiday spending. All of the budgeting and planning in the world won’t help you keep your expenses under control if you aren’t able to keep track of what you’ve spent.
Fortunately, there are some relatively easy ways to track your holiday spending. Check these out and select the one that fits you and your lifestyle. Your extra effort will be rewarded when you finish this year’s holiday shopping more in control than you have ever been before.
Keep a master list. The simplest way to track your holiday spending is to write everything down on a list. You might begin your list by writing down all of your gift-recipients, your gift ideas for each person, and your budget for each gift. Then, you can add a column to list your actual spending for each gift. Sure, this method requires a little pencil pushing, but maintenance is easy. You can carry your list with you as you shop.
Carry your holiday budget in an envelope. One way to ensure that you don’t go over your budget this year is to limit your purchases to cash purchases. Simply withdraw your holiday budget from your checking account and place it in an envelope. Use that cash for each of your purchases. When the money runs out, you’ll know that you’ve reached your limit. Take care as you shop, however, to not carry too much cash with you. You might consider using two envelopes; take out enough for the days shopping and keep it in one envelope. Keep the rest of your Christmas cash in an envelope at home.
Go high-tech with a spreadsheet. My favorite way to track holiday purchases is to use a spreadsheet. Now, I realize that the idea of using a spreadsheet may sound a little geeky. Who wants to do that kind of work at Christmas? Hear me out, though. Spreadsheets take all of the work out of adding up your expenditures. And, you can save your list to use as a basis for next year’s budget. Suddenly, that spreadsheet doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
Related Posts Related Websites- Banking Reviews: eBank’s ePremium Checking Account After ING Direct pioneering the online checking account, a number...
- Separate checking accounts, or keep them joint? I've read a number of articles dealing with the dynamics...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
One thing we’ve been using is Evernote to keep track of lists. We enter them online and can access them on my phone. this way when we go shopping we know exactly what we need to get.