I would also like to add how much I love Dad's meatballs. I forgot I had taken two back to school with me, and the one I just ate really hit the spot. Thanks Dad!
While on the subject of Dad, after reading his email about the financial crisis and how I should try to limit my spending and never charge anything on my credit card, I decided to start keeping better track of my money. In the past I have just reviewed bank statements and made a mental note about stupid purchases. Today I made an excel spreadsheet where I can keep track of all specific purchases, categorize them, and analyze what my stupidest purchases are each month so that I can avoid them in the future. I just summed up the past two months and since I've gotten to school I have reduced my spending by 35%! There's still room for improvement though. For one thing, I spend way too much money on gas. A lot of that was from driving to and from home, but I still feel like I am hurting myself and the environment with the amount of gas I use. I need to start driving places less. The good news though is that I'm more aware of my spending since I look at it and document it every month. Eventually (when I'm not supposed to be doing homework) I'll create a budget for myself so I know how much I should be spending total each month without depleting my savings.
Looking at my money makes me feel like I should get a job...
Bank of America's online banking has this cool feature where you can categorize all of your purchases and it will output neat charts and diagrams of your spending. They have a lot of cool tools if you go into "My Portfolio" tab. you can add all of your credit cards, loans, etc into the portfolio to see your net worth and keep track of all your expenses in one place. BOA rocks.
ReplyDeleteMy bank doesn't have that, so I was using mint.com. Pretty much the same thing.
ReplyDelete