money

“I refuse to spend the first 60 years of my life worrying about the last 20.” via Possum Living

We’ve been following the program laid out in Your Money or Your Life for the last few years. The program helped us get out of debt and seriously question how we spend money (our life energy). We’ve been talking about streamlining our finances for the last few weeks and reading The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life prompted us to take action in 2 areas: expense tracking and the use of credit cards.

1. Tracking expenses.

Right now we track all of our purchases through a program called Money Dance. Tracking expenses is a good exercise because it really forces you to take a hard look at what you’re spending your money on. The number of receipts I’ve been entering is crazy! I think it’s a sign that we’re spending too much money.

2. Cash only, no credit.

We use our credit card sparingly and pay them off every month, but I’d rather use cash. Cash is easier to manage (at least for me). Also, once the cash is gone we won’t be tempted to overspend. Overspending is so easy to do when using a credit or debit card. [click to continue…]

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