Happy Dance!!!

This image depicts how I felt on Friday!

Last month, I decided to open my eyes and really look at my spending habits because more than anything I needed to know where my money was disappearing to. It seemed like money was flowing through my fingers like water and leaving no evidence that it was ever in my hand. Part of my plan is to record all spending no matter how small. Which means documenting all receipts and opening all mail and recording even the interest payments. Previously, I would guess what I had to pay, and sometime over paid and other times underpaid the bills. This you can imagine resulted in paying higher interests if under paying bills.

Therefore, in keeping with my plan I have been going through my stacks of mail, sorting, and filing them since the beginning of the year. As it is tax time, I decide to look for and found my tax assessment from last year. I remember receiving it but was in a hurry and placed in on pile of the stack of correspondence where it stayed for seven months unopened, until Friday. I opened it and inside was a check for over $6,000!!! Wow! Let that be a lesson to me, open every piece of mail no matter how in a rush I might be.

Where's the Money???

One week into 2010 and all is well on the Ottawa River.

I’ve been thinking about personal finances this week and have asked myself the preverbal question where is the money going? Which compelled me to mindfully keep an eye on where all our disposable money is disappearing to. Okay, not really disposable only being disposed of willy-nilly. I know what the major expenses are spent on, like for example the mortgage, gas, credit cards, and such. But also it is those small purchases from Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, and takeout meals that elude me. In addition, grabbing a newspaper, magazine, and other things we pick up just because we can, adds up.

A colleague recommended this site to help get me organized. I fount it to be awfully helpful and user friendly.

However, I decided only to created an excel expense spreadsheet to target my spending for a start. For the moment, I am not going to worry about a budget and the other items suggested. The reason is one baby step is the only way to establish good habits, I think. Once I can maintain documenting all our expenses, become more aware of the spending, I will be able to turn off the spending autopilot. Moreover, I will finally have the black and white facts to answer the question of where’s the money?

A positive result from this exercise is that the once cluttered section of the kitchen counter is now cleared because I have started a proper file management system to tract bills as they arrive. Yay for me!

How are you starting your new year? What projects are you tackling?