Many of us have no debt management plan so we have no idea how much we spend or exactly what we spend the money on. Our strategy is to spend as if we can afford anything. It’s much easier when using a credit card than with cash.

The spending wisdom if you can call believes that budgets are for nerds who track every single penny on a spreadsheet or with a calculator. Knock it if you want but it does work!

Any steps to manage debt must come with a plan. By tracking your spending and purchases you can begin to take steps to reduce your expenses. Cutting those extra spending dollars with allow that money to go toward paying down debt like credit cards or other consumer debt.

In our house we keep all receipts and write down what we spend each day. At the end of the day we categorize all of our spending onto a sheet with columns to track what and where the money is going. Once a week all the daily totals are put on a spreadsheet track things on a monthly and yearly basis.

It takes a few months tracking it this way to really see where your money is going. That‘s where the problem comes in. Usually after a few days the debt plan loses it’s appeal and people stop working toward managing their finances.

The goal is to track your money not for the sake of tracking it, but as a means to buy what you need and buy the things you want, without paying extra for them.

You probably have a good idea of what the monthly expenses are. It’s all those extra household items like the car, gas, eating out, groceries, clothes, etc. In order to fully manage your debt part of the plan starts with tracking your spending.