This is going to be a bit of a everything post, so bear with me.
I have largely stopped doing spending reports. There are two reasons why I’ve become disenchanted with them:
1. They’re not that interesting, both for the writer (me) and the reader (you)
2. They’re never super accurate. At least, not on my end. I try my best to track my spending to the penny, but I have a hard time doing that accurately when I spend in cash. I am probably usually only a couple of dollars off, but lacking accuracy bugs me.
I still track spending in my head. I know that I spent $20 at Shoppers yesterday for mascara and vitamins. I know that I ate lunch out of the office four days out of the five I was at work (woops). I know that I paid for parking once at school and my gas was $10 more than it normally is because of the exorbitant increase in prices. I also spent $19 on a Groupon for unlimited yoga for a month, which I’m so excited to use after I am out of school this semester.
Spending reports might crop up if I had a particularly spendy week, but I don’t feel as if reporting them on WLGYL is adding value to my life, finances, or blog, so for now, out they go.
Link love, and blogs that I enjoyed
In any case, I’m sure you are indifferent, but I hope you’re not indifferent to these wonderful links. There was a TON of good content in the finance and lifestyle blogospheres this week, so I had a hard time narrowing it down.
My friend Serendipity is giving up procrastination. I don’t know about you, but when I read posts like this it really lights a fire under me to do the same. It’s so motivating!
Marissa from Thirty Six Months gives readers some tips on saving money in university. I sort of blew it and moved out when I was 18, in my first year of uni. This has caused a lot of financial stress and it’s taken me way longer to complete my degree than it should have
John from Married (with Debt) has a great post on making a debt budget. I love all of the spreadsheets and it makes my type A heart flutter a little. This is part of a series, called 10 Rules to Eliminate Your Debt and Change Your Life.
Untemplater had only a thousand great posts this week, so it was hard to pick one to link to here, so I’m not going to. I’m going to link to the homepage and you can have fun reading. And please, do. The site is very inspiration. My favorites were Sydney’s posts about job interview tips.
Wealth Informatics discusses anchoring. It’s an interesting concept and an interesting post.
Cait from Blonde on a Budget discusses how her passion has helped her budget. I have a lot in common with Cait, I think. We both love reading, we’re both vegetarians, for largely the same reasons. Plus, she’s a BC girl, so that just means she’s just that much more awesome 
Aloysa from My Broken Coin talks about a retailers worst nightmare. The scenario she describes is one that I’m familiar with, and it’s a bit of a nightmare.
And, regarding milestones. My fellow Canadian friend, Cents of a Country Girl, has turned 1! Happy blogoversary, girl! Below Her Means is in the black (go you!), and Melissa from BrokeTO threw in the freelancing towel because she got an awesome new job.
There were a thousand other great blog posts on the blogosphere this week, so here are some blogs I have been enjoying this week:
- Step Away from the Mall
- Smart Money Focus
- Prairie Eco Thrifter
- Balancing Money and Life
- Free Money Finance
- Along for the Journey
- Money Reasons
- The Dollar Disciple
And, finally, have you subscribed to my feed yet? Press the little orange RSS button at the top of this page to subscribe! You an also follow me on Twitter.
This is interesting because I have just started following your blog and you posting your spending numbers (as inaccurate as they might be) inspired me to start keeping track of my spending every evening. I consider myself to be a pretty frugal person, but one day I realized that I had spent over $300. On stuff that I’m telling myself that I “need”. So while yes, I AM being frugal in a lot of areas, clipping coupons, sending for rebates, reusing and repurposing many things, obviously I leave a lot of wiggle room for those things that I suddenly rationalize as things that I “need” when maybe… well, maybe I didn’t need them all that much. And yes, I kind of kept track in my head of the things that I had bought, but the total amount didn’t shock me until I saw it in writing
Plus, I like to see how people are spending their money. I know it’s total voyeurism, but it does interest me. Sometimes I get all judgemental, but also a lot of times I start thinking “she/he only spends xx on this?! How can I make that happen for me too?!”
I just wanted to share that with you since you inspired this renewed awareness in me, lol. Good luck with your goals.
Nathalie,
Thank you for the feedback and I’m so glad that I could be of some help to you! Perhaps I’ll continue on with spending reports, then. Sometimes I feel like they are not very helpful.
I always wonder about spending reports too…whether people really want to know that I spent $7.99 on tampons and so on…lol!!
Great links, thanks!
I agree with Nathalie that you may want to reconsider the idea of dropping the spending reports. It is great inspiration for others. The accuracy probably isn’t too important. I would think you’d get the most benefit out of a written budget recap early on as you start identifying areas where you are wasting money. Still it keeps you accountable for your spending if you are always publicly sharing it.
I think you would be surprised by how much people enjoy spending reports! They’re my fav part of PF blogs.
Thanks for the tip of the hat! I with you on the spending reports. I do a monthly summary, but that’s it. Not doing weekly spending reports means that I have to come with something else to post about, which is more of a challenge but feels a bit more rewarding (sometimes haha).
Thanks Daisy! I’m torn on spending reports, too. I don’t publish them but if there’s an outlier or something extreme I may mention that (i.e. “Last month didn’t go too well… it turns out I spent $350 on two restaurant meals and can’t even remember who I went with.”).
I may be able to help answer Carla’s question though… I have no desire to know how much she spends on tampons haha
Haha!! See?! I totally figured that!
Thanks for the mention. I doubt readers are too interested in how I spend my money each month, either. So I’ll just say: I always spend less than I earn – boring, right?
Pingback: Spending Report: March 4-10 | When Life Gives You Lemons
Dave Ramsey has totally ceagnd our lives! It’s AMAZING what happens when your’e aware of what you’re spending. We cash our paycheck & bring that cash home, then spend it on paper. I use $60 per week for groceries. $60 goes in the envelope for the week and that envelope goes w/ me to the grocery store. If I go over $60, I have to put something back. I don’t use my debit card to make the difference. Same w/ gas, restaurant fund, the family time fund, etc. We got $17 in gas yesterday because that was all that was left. Makes us think about our trips out & reall saves money. Thanks for this challenge it’s easy saving money if you concentrate & look for solutions but you’ve got to be focused and organized. I coupon like a mad woman they’re everywhere, newspapers, internet, friends I typically save $10 $35 per week w/ coupons.