Day 24 Of 30 Days Of Stay-At-Home Personal Finance Wins: Create a Budget/Spending Tracking System

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What if you were able to come out of this time of social distancing and economic crisis with a stronger and healthier financial life? What if you looked at this as an opportunity to take a little bit of your extra time each day to work on your finances?

Since it takes me about 35 minutes to drive to work in the morning and 45 minutes on the way back home, I have an extra 1 hour and 20 minutes of my day that I don’t have to drive while I’m working from home that I can use to accomplish something. This doesn’t even take into consideration all of the networking and social events that would usually take up some of my time throughout the week.

Obviously, your situation is different than mine (and probably a whole lot different if you have kids at home who would otherwise be in daycare), but I’m guessing that we all have at least a little extra time right now that we can dedicate to our personal finances.

It looks like we’re going to continue to practice our social distancing skills at least through April, and now is a great time to work on creating a better financial situation, so I’m giving you 30 days of stay-at-home personal finance wins throughout April.

Unfortunately, I understand that there are many who have (and who will) lose their jobs during this time of uncertainty and objectively will not come out on the other side of this with a stronger financial situation. Hopefully, many of these personal finance wins can help to lessen the blow and make things easier on them. On the other hand, I think that many of these wins are still relevant to those who are fortunate enough to be in a position to not have to worry about their job and their finances to help them build a healthier financial life.

Day 24: Create a Budget/Spending Tracking System

Being intentional with your money is a key to being financially successful and a budget and tracking your spending are key to providing you with the information that you need to be more intentional with your money.

A budget doesn’t mean that you have to cut back on spending on the things that you like. In fact, I believe that a budget should allow you to spend more on your Money Dials (the things that you love) by allocating your funds appropriately. Tracking your spending allows you to see if your money has actually gone where you wanted it to or if it went to other things that you need to evaluate.

I’ve written about how to create a budget and tracking system before. Here are some links to help you: