How can I tell where my money goes? When I look at my tax return, there is no way I made that much and have so little.
Determining your actual spending is easy, but tedious. You will have to log all your spending if you want an extremely accurate accounting. There are computer programs that will help you do this or you can create one in a spreadsheet. The advantage to a specialty program is that all the categories you would need are already established, charts and graphs can be generated and you can distinguish between personal and business expenses as well as what is medical and tax related. You can only get out what you put in, but this is a key element in forming your home budget. People are surprised at the results when they go through this exercise for a month. Discretionary spending and expenses for fast food and items such as that tend to be more than what was anticipated.
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Determining your actual spending is easy, but tedious. You will have to log all your spending if you want an extremely accurate accounting. There are computer programs that will help you do this or you can create one in a spreadsheet. The advantage to a specialty program is that all the categories you would need are already established, charts and graphs can be generated and you can distinguish between personal and business expenses as well as what is medical and tax related. You can only get out what you put in, but this is a key element in forming your home budget. People are surprised at the results when they go through this exercise for a month. Discretionary spending and expenses for fast food and items such as that tend to be more than what was anticipated.
