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Money tracking.
May. 10th, 2009 12:11 pmOddly enough, I feel much less mature in regards to money now than I did at 17. At 17, I didn't have a credit card, did have a checking account, didn't have bills, did have a part time job.
So the only question was: is there money in the checking account? And if yes, what do I want to buy with it?
At 19, I had a job and bills and student loans to repay, and a checking account, but no credit card. And no debit card. I took out money once a week for spending and had a written budget in enough detail that it included a line item for stamps. I always was ahead a bit at the end of the month. I did a running balance on my checking account with every purchase or withdrawal.
The advent of credit and debit cards in my life was a difficult one, because I didn't go into using them with a coherent tracking plan. I tried something unwieldy where I kept all my receipts in a notebook and compared them to my statement at the end of the month. It was so cumbersome I gave up tracking at all, which meant my credit card usage slowly ballooned over time. I don't have a lot of credit card debt or anything, but I'm actually carrying a card balance this spring for the first time, and it doesn't make me happy. It's not a huge balance, and I'm committed to having it paid off before I move at the end of the summer, but still...
I think my new resolution is to just log into my bank and credit card accounts every day. It can be part of my routine in the morning. Check email, check livejournal, check credit card, check bank account. Tracking receipts might be good too, but I think that, practically, the online statements that are updated every day do all that for me if I just USE them.
So the only question was: is there money in the checking account? And if yes, what do I want to buy with it?
At 19, I had a job and bills and student loans to repay, and a checking account, but no credit card. And no debit card. I took out money once a week for spending and had a written budget in enough detail that it included a line item for stamps. I always was ahead a bit at the end of the month. I did a running balance on my checking account with every purchase or withdrawal.
The advent of credit and debit cards in my life was a difficult one, because I didn't go into using them with a coherent tracking plan. I tried something unwieldy where I kept all my receipts in a notebook and compared them to my statement at the end of the month. It was so cumbersome I gave up tracking at all, which meant my credit card usage slowly ballooned over time. I don't have a lot of credit card debt or anything, but I'm actually carrying a card balance this spring for the first time, and it doesn't make me happy. It's not a huge balance, and I'm committed to having it paid off before I move at the end of the summer, but still...
I think my new resolution is to just log into my bank and credit card accounts every day. It can be part of my routine in the morning. Check email, check livejournal, check credit card, check bank account. Tracking receipts might be good too, but I think that, practically, the online statements that are updated every day do all that for me if I just USE them.
