Take the 30 Day Spending Challenge

Most of us don’t realize where our money is going.   We have bad spending habits.   The biggest contributor to this lack of responsibility is credit cards.  When you use plastic with electrons moving back and forth to represent money it is very easy to get caught spending more than you make.

Credit cards aren’t bank accounts; they are debt – Very expensive debt.

You may say, “I don’t use credit cards, I just use my debit card and I still don’t have enough.”

OK. Fair enough.

The question is, do you know where you are spending your money?   How much you are spending and do you have any bad spending habits?

Are you taking cash out of the cash machine and buying coffee?  Are you buying lunch?

Are you wondering why you are still short every month?

Many of us don’t realize that we are suffering “monetary death by a thousand cuts”.   It is all the little purchases we make that add up to a great big bunch of money:   50₵ for some gum, $1.50 for a coffee 5 times a day, or even a $10 lunch 3 times a week.   This is why I didn’t have enough.   I was spending cash on all these little items.   They added up to hundreds of dollars a month.

What makes this even worse?   Using a credit card for all these little purchases.    You get the bill at the end of the month, look at your bank balance, and decide to only pay 50% of the balance – and you’re wondering why your credit cards are maxed out!

The 30 day challenge

I have a challenge for you.   Can you invest the next 30 days learning exactly what you are spending?   This 30-day challenge is the first step of my Debt-Free program.   For the next 30 days I’m going to ask you to track EVERY penny that you spend.  This will identify your bad spending habits.

Step 1 – Identify your bad spending habits by tracking your expenses

In this first step, you have to start tracking what you are spending.   Tracking means that you have to document in some way, every penny that you spend for 30 days.   Probably the easiest way to do this is to go to the Dollar store and buy a small note pad.   That means pay $1 for a note pad.  I am assuming that you don’t need your credit card for this.

For 30 days, write down on the note pad, EVERYTHING you spend.    This is especially crucial if you like to take out $60 bucks a week for pocket money.   It is crucial that you don’t miss anything, even if it is 10₵.   This exercise will reveal to you the truth about your spending.    You need to track the amount you spent AND what the item you bought.  For Example:  Coffee – $1.75.

Step 2 – Group your Expenses

Once you’ve completed your 30 days of tracking.  It’s time to see how you did.  Take all the items and start grouping them.   Put all your coffee’s together, all your lunches together, etc.  You should now have a list of categories of items.

Step 3 – Add them up

Now total all the categories of expenses.   For example:  Coffee – $23.45 total, lunch –  $230.34 .   Once you have totaled each category, now add them all up to see how much money you are really spending.

If you’re like us, this exercise will really reveal the stupid things you spend your money on.   You will find that those coffees you buy every day start to add up.   The lunch you buy every day starts to add up.  The snacks, the movies, etc.   We found it shocking yet revealing.   The money wasn’t just disappearing every month, it was being spent in all the wrong places.




Wishing you a debt free life.

Wealthy n Free Leader

P.S.  Here is an article that contains some other tips to reduce your spending.