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Saturday, April 18, 2020

Spend Money on Your VALUES - Mindy Jensen - Bigger Pockets #Best Education Page #Online Earning

Spend Money on Your VALUES - Mindy Jensen - Bigger Pockets




so yes to all of that we started
tracking probably in 2013 with a
notebook it was a notebook opened up to
the same sheet right on the countertop
as I walked in the house and it had date
store category and dollar amount and
then I think there was like a running
total or something and when I would go
to the grocery store I would write it
down on 215 I went to King Soopers and I
spent thirty seven dollars and 12 cents
and on groceries and what I noticed
right away after that first month was I
went to the grocery store every single
day because we lived we lived over here
and the gym was here and in between here
in the gym were like seven grocery
stores and oh I just need that one thing
have you ever gone into the grocery
store and just gotten that one thing no
I always stop by the damaged bin you
know what's over here what's the dented
can today oh I don't need pickled pig's
feet or yeah I can use black beans or
you know whatever so I would go in for
one thing and come out with ten which
isn't a big deal once a week or once a
month but every single day all of a
sudden I have all this stuff that I
don't really need and that was the most
eye-opening of tracking spending is just
I need to stop going to the grocery
store every day so I really tried to
plan out our meals and not so much
budget as just like oh this is on sale
today I was gonna have beef but now I'll
have chicken because it's cheaper so I
tried to plan out meals and know what I
had in the counters or in the cabinet so
I could start clearing those out that
was literally the biggest thing for us
was just stop going to the grocery store
every single day and tracking your
spending because once you you know you
track it for the first month with no
shame and no guilt and you just where
are you spending your money you start
tracking it and you're like oh my
goodness I can't believe I go to
Starbucks seven times a day or I go out
to dinner you know every Friday and
Saturday night I know I do it but I
don't really pay attention to it and now
I
can start seeing oh I don't need this my
values aren't what I'm spending my money
on so I'm gonna stop going to the
grocery store every day I'm gonna make
it a point of only going on Mondays cuz
I need Saturdays as a disaster but like
I'm only gonna go on this and then on
Tuesday if I need something I'm gonna
have to make do or I'm gonna have to
make something else and we started
making it into a game how little can I
spend oh I'm not gonna go to the grocery
store at all this week I've got milk and
I've got fresh fruit and I don't need
anything else so I'm gonna see can I can
I make it you know ten days without the
grocery store can I make it two weeks
without the grocery store and I'm not up
to once a month shopping yet but we're
doing a lot better and I'm actually I'm
actually back down to going in more
frequently but buying less being very
conscious of what I'm buying at the
grocery store and I don't even walk past
the discount bin anymore
because that's like a trigger that's a
spending trigger
we now have a thing on our phones it's a
little app it's a what is it a Google
form that is our budget the waffles on
Wednesday group a couple I guess they're
not a group it's a couple they wrote an
article about how to track your spending
it's a mobile spending tracker you make
a questionnaire on Google Forms and you
know it's a custom questionnaire so you
can ask whatever you want and then when
you enter it into your phone it sends it
to a spreadsheet so I don't have to
remember if I'm stopping at 7 places I
don't have to remember all the things
that I went to and how much I spent I
fill it out right there at the cash
register as I'm walking out to my car
and that's been really helpful to track
what we're spending and when we're
spending because it's so easy to forget
a spent expense Carl did the math I
think we did we spent $60,000 last year
we took a couple of vacations I traveled
a lot last year so this year we're gonna
aim for $40,000 or less - how six but
are not including house expenses because
we just bought a new house and we're
getting ready to rehab it gotcha okay in
going back to the
sort of beginning of like tracking the
spending obviously there's apps and
there's different solutions that are
technical you could manage on your phone
I think there's something powerful to
write it down in a notebook for some
reason like I use notebooks and my notes
here for our interview or I wrote them
by hand like I could have typed them out
but I wrote them by hand so do you think
there's anything I guess that was useful
by writing it by hand versus using an
app or just because we could download
you could have downloaded your credit
card or your bank statements and then
like categorize the past and you
wouldn't have had to go through that
month or whatever when you were figuring
out your expenses so handwriting any
thoughts I absolutely think that it's
amazing to handwrite it I had a notebook
and it was sitting on the counter and
the first day of every month was a new
page and the first day of the month
you're like oh here's my mortgage
payment here's my electric bill and then
you start watching that list grow and
it's in front of your face mm-hmm the
only downside to the the Google Form is
that I don't really see the spreadsheet
unless I go into the computer and look
at it whereas the notebook sitting there
right where I put my keys down even if I
haven't spent anything that day I can
still see that big list of expenses that
I have you know I have money that I have
spent and you know you get towards the
end of the month and you're like ooh
there's that running total I met you
know $1,800 and I really want to keep it
under 2,400 and you know can I do that I
think it's more powerful to do it
handwriting but not everybody wants to
undertake that so I would say that if
you're thinking about tracking your
spending you absolutely should and you
should do it in the way that's the
easiest for you but if writing it down
is is at all possible do that to look at
it every single day

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