Logistics of spending and saving

Pretend last week was an average week for you. How much did you spend? Seriously…take a second.

Ok. Whatever you just said, sorry, but you’re wrong. And there’s a reason for that. We’re cognitively not wired to properly amortize our spending over long periods of time. See, you didn’t properly take into account the $500 you spent on Christmas gifts, or the 2-week vacation you took at home when you spend nothing at all.

It’s really hard to do it. That’s why I use technology to help. You can use whatever you want, but the basic thing is that without knowing concretely what you’re spending, you can’t really expect to save much.

• Why/how to keep a budget
• Another way to keep a budget
• What to do if you spend way more than you budgeted
• Guess how much your subscriptions cost? and the followup article.

There are some others you can check out in the Saving category (see other categories on the right side of this page).