It's the first of May! On March 31 I wrote this post encouraging you to join me in keeping track of "where the money goes" on an April calendar posted to your refrigerator. I hope your recording went better than mine! Frugal Momma brought her family to my house for Easter and commented on 4-5 (at that time) blank squares that should have been filled in on my budget calendar. :o)
I found that I did just fine keeping my receipts and getting my husbands receipts. It was just too difficult to record the receipts once I had pulled them from my purse, pockets, and coupon folders! I was usually too busy unloading the car, settling children and putting away groceries. I did not give up. I just created another method that works better for me. Maybe you will find this method more mommy friendly.
Every few days I would clean the receipts out of my purse and off my husband's shelf. I just put them here until I had a moment to record them.
When time allowed (usually late at night) I began to record my receipts in this notebook.
I had one page for each day. Some were left blank. Yay! On those pages where we spent money, I recorded the total, where I spent the $ and an abbreviation to indicate what category it was for (GR-groceries, CL-clothing, HH-household, MD-medical, AU-automotive, ENT-entertainment, etc.) I also kept the receipts in this folder. If I needed a receipt for a MIR, I just made a note beside that purchase (MIR) indicating that it was missing because it had been mailed away for cash. I did not record our regular bills. We know how much $ is going out for these monthly expenses. I just wanted to find out how we spent the $ we pulled out of the ATM and how much went to entertainment, groceries, clothing, etc. This receipt basket/notebook was/is a work in progress. I worked out some of the kinks to streamline it as I used it. I'm sure I've not perfected it.
Now I just have to total it!
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