I've learnt this simple yet great trick to maintain expenses and keep the pocket money in check. Often, in spite of traveling to college and back home, my pocket money gets exhausted before month-end. This mysterious disappearance of my pocket money before the end was very annoying. I wanted an increment as I would be penniless towards the end. But when my mom asked how the pocket money got over so soon, I was speechless. I gave her few reasons like auto and canteen food (and also pizzas, McDs, etc.), but that did not suffice. It was as if I was lying. That's when I thought I should note down the expenses to know where did the money go exactly. I was surprised to see that the maximum money was spent on auto drives!

So from last month, I got an increment, and I am damn happy. I also will try saving from next month.

To manage the expenses, you just need a book and a pen! (The fancier the book, the funner it is to manage!)




I chose this book (a single-ruled spiral bound book) for this task. The decision was totally random, and I did not think about it. I just picked this out, and thought it to be a perfect book for expense. I used to keep this book in my secret box.




Write the month's name before you start managing. Next to it, write the amounts of money you had received at different occasions. For example, your friend returned back money that she had lent from you, write it down; your mom gave you the money you'd paid for a grocery item while coming home; write it down. All these things would be your 'income' (feels great, yeah?)




This is the detailed monthly expense of October. I even wrote the smallest Rs. 5 deal! Remembering where your money goes after coming back home becomes easy too. You must have seen that I haven't put any sort of hard work other than calculating, which was simple too. There are no pencils, no rulers, no fancy items...nothing.




The best thing was writing the total amount on weekly basis as well. It was shocking to know how a big expense affected the week's total. I really loved how I could compare all the five weeks of October.

Now, for this month, after having an experience of October month, I have decided to divide my pocket money into two parts--First fifteen days 50%, and the next fifteen days 50%. If you keep this target, no matter whether you save or no, at least you'll have a blast towards the month end, and live the second half of every month just like the first half!





How do you manage your expenses?
xoxo