Do you keep records of the expenses of your family?

There are alot of ways to keep a tally of what you spend. Get in the habit of saving your receipts. Keep them someplace in your purse that will sort of bug you when you see them. Use the type of checks that have reciepts attached. Keep a Budget book. Use your debit or credit cards for certain jpurchased and keep tract of those that way. You can also get software that will help you to keep track. It is never too late to get started and you will not be sorry. It may even surprise you to see some of the debits.

I think that it is really important for a family to know where there money is going. Budgetting is essential to a home running smoothly. That said, I do not maintain my family budget book well! I do however manage to keep the daily expenditure updated for a full month and when I see where my wasted money is going I try to pull myself up and save more money. It is a good reality check for yourself. You can still have a few things that you forget to add but you can have a fairly good record of where your money is going. Good luck with your family management - I hope you save as much as me!

I tried to keep a record of my own expenses once. Yes, it's really hard to maintain. It's like a diary of sorts only you list down every single cent you spend. From my fare, meals, even some small stuffs that i buy - all of them i list down. I eventually got tired and stopped doing it. Now i just monitor my major expenses, mostly bills.

I find that difficult, I cant even keep my check book balanced, so that is why I refuse to have one. I have tried to keed a balance of all that I spent, cant do it. That is why I prefer a bank card.

I tried once. As you said, its hard to maintain day to day expenses list. My grandpa used to write the expenses diary everyday. In India we put money to beggars, that also he will write in that book. But now its not possible.

Hi Jade, Before i keep record of all the expenses i am using for daily basis money that i am spending even if my mother asked her to help expenses in thier house.I keep records for everything for two years earning and spending.But after a while i get tire of doing it.I got 6 big notebook full of spending records and 2 notebook for earning.It become habit for me for two years.But i think that i can spend the time i am using w/ that in other things so i stopped doing it. Greetings from che...

I used to do it daily earlier...and it did work for me. All I had to do was spend around 10 minutes each night and once in a week or two I would tally the income, expenditure and balance....and I had no problems. But it started getting difficult once my second child was a few months old. I would hardly get any time to breathe and didn't have the time to keep records. ....and everything has gone for a toss since then and we've been spending money without any accounts and have no control over the money we spend.

i do taht. but not always. mainly in day to day life, mom keeps about all those expenses. i keep note of expenses taht are generally on some programs at ghome.

No I do not keep the records of my family's expenses. My family members are know enough on how to use and where their money go. Im glad because they do not waste their money to unwanted goods. At least the electricity, water bils and the ice box are full of foods then its ok. The rest of their money they can put in the bank or use it for their own purpose. Our family's policy is respecting each other and not too busy body to control family member's money. :)

My hubby keeps a spreadsheet of bills, when they are due, how much it due, how much he actually paid. That would be great, if he kept it up. Or if he did more than put things on the spreadsheet. Sometimes he "forgets" to pay the bills after he's carefully put them on his stupid spreadsheet. Grrr. At our house, money seems to disappear regularly. I've suggested that DH try keeping track of every penny he spends, but, alas, he won't do that. So any cash he takes from the ATM disappears and he knows not where.

I started keeping track of my spending when I realized that my hubby's paychecks where more than we needed but we weren't making ends meet. I wanted to be able to see for myself as well as show my hubby where the $ was going. I keep a little note pad in my purse and I made an envelope for the back of it for receipts. I tally everything up at the end of the day if I have time if not at the end of the week for sure. It only takes a second to write down the little spending but it really makes a difference in how I look at that $1.50 coffee now. My $ diary helped me find ways to cut spending (refills if I must buy drinks on the road, ect.) and we are doing much better now. Yeah it's extra work but it's worth it.