You know that guilt you feel when you buy something you "shouldn't"? Whether it was Starbucks yesterday or Taco Bell last week, you're not alone. I'm on a mission to lift the ambiguity around finances for the people I work with - part of that is knowing whether it's okay for you to buy that Pumpkin Spice Latte or splurge on a night out with your friends.
Good news! It doesn't have to be that hard. It doesn't even necessarily mean you need to budget. What you do need to do however, is get a handle on how much you spend and what you spend it on. There are two main ways I encourage the people I work with to track their spending.
The first is to print off credit card and bank statements for the past few months and total up how much money is going out the door. Reconcile this with your paystubs to make sure you're doing your math right (it doesn't matter that you aced algebra in high school, we all make mistakes). From here, if you need to dive in further, it's easy - all of the information is right there in front of you. I prefer this manual method because it gets at the heart of the issue - awareness. There is no hiding from what's right in front of you.
The second method is using a budgeting app. For small financial choices like this, I like using the website NerdWallet; they do reviews on all sorts of things, so one of their articles can help you determine the best budgeting app for you. Once you get all of your accounts linked, keep in mind that you'll need to actually schedule some time to review your spending. It's no good to track it if you never look at it.
As always, keep in mind that you don't have to go it alone. Check out my website to see what it's like to work with me and reach out if you have any questions.
If you found this post helpful, help spread the word! But remember, this is solely for educational purposes - it's not advice.
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