Everyone knows having a budget is the best way to manage your money (if you don’t believe me, check this out).  You tell your money what you want it to do, but how do you know if it is doing what you told it to? You aren’t done at a budget, you have to track your expenses to ensure your money is, in fact, doing what you want it to.

I strongly recommend using a handwritten budget, so it won’t be a huge leap for me to also say, I STRONGLY recommend tracking your expenses by hand too!  Will it be a little bit of work as compared to an app? You betcha!

I promise I’m not crazy and I have some pretty good reasons for why you should be using some of your very valuable time to write down all of your expenses for the month.

Why You Need to Track Your Expenses By Hand

1.  It takes time.

Duh, right?!  Yes, writing your expenses down takes up your time.  In life, we spend our time on things that are important to us.  If you are taking the time to write down all of your expenses on a weekly basis, you are training yourself that your budget and your spending are important.

Spending time handwriting all of those charges will make you prioritize and focus on paying attention to your budget.  This won’t be like an app where you can just open it, glance at it, and move on with your day. Instead, you will be taking time out of your day to physically write everything down.

The time you are spending can also work by making you not want to spend money.  Think about it. The more transactions you make, the longer it will take to track your expenses.  I have found this to be true with myself. I want to avoid transactions because it will be one less thing I have to spend my time writing down.

2.  It happens frequently.

To stay on top of your expenses/spending you should be checking in with your budget once weekly.  This frequency will keep you on the same page as your budget. Something people like to do is assume they have X amount of dollars and spend money they aren’t even sure they have.

Then at the end of the month, they check and, “Whoops!” Didn’t actually have the money.  They didn’t check their budget so they didn’t know. They ask forgiveness and move on to the next month where they will try harder.  It’s a cycle that happens over and over again.

Handwritten expense tracking will happen frequently so you can sit down for little bits of time every week, get all the expenses written and stay in touch with where you are at with your budget/spending for the month.

GET YOUR BUDGET WORKING TODAY USING OUR BASIC BUDGET SETUP SHEETS!  GET THEM INSTANTLY WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

3.  It is a physical process.

Physically writing down all of your expenses will make you feel the purchase all over again.  There are studies that show cash leaving your hand actually causes us pain. If you shop with a debit card you may be missing this pain response making purchases not all that difficult for you.

When you are writing down each purchase on paper, you are actually reliving the purchase and paying attention to how it has impacted your budget.

This act alone will decrease your urge to spend when you start to realize the purchases that have been hurting

• your budget,
• your money saving abilities and
• your debt payoff plan.

4.  It keeps you on track with your budget.

When you track your expenses, especially on a weekly basis, you are going to be so in tune with your actions and consequences.  There will be no guesswork about where you are for the month.

You are going to review every purchase when you write it down and see how it affects your budget.  This is the best training you could ever get. You will see how that impulse decision to go through the Arby’s drive-through made you go over on your food budget and you don’t have anything to cover it.

Staying on track with your budget is an active process that you have to stay on top of to know where you are.  Tracking your expenses is the only way to know what you are doing.

5.  You are in charge.

Who doesn’t want to be the boss of their own life?  When you track your expenses, you are living within your budget.  You are devising the plan for your money and your life and then you monitor how you are doing with it.

You are completely in charge of the plan, the process, and the outcome.  You answer to no one but you (unless you are married). Did you mess up this month and have a moment of weakness?  You get to live with the consequences and change your behavior for the next month. You are completely responsible for your future.

I have now been tracking my expenses by hand for 3 years and I don’t plan on doing it any differently any time soon.  If you are serious about getting on a budget and sticking to it, this is the key to that. This is the best way to track your expenses that will benefit you in every way.

If you don’t have a budget set up just yet you can start here:

What is a Zero-Based Budget & Why Does it Work?

How to Set Up a Zero-Based Budget Without Ripping Your Hair Out

Once your budget is set up, you can get our FREE Expense Tracking Worksheet by signing up below!  If you are going to spend time tracking, it may as well be cute!

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