Exploring Financial Literacy 50 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. May not be reproduced or posted to a publicly accessible website. Tracking Expenses Do you know where your money goes? If you are like many others, you spend money but do not always remember what you spent it on. If you want to build wealth and have a solid financial plan, start paying attention to how you spend your money. The best way to do this is to create a record of what you spend. If you track your spending for several days or weeks, you will get an idea of how much you should plan for expenses in your budget. To create a weekly spending record, write the amounts you spend for fixed and variable expenses each day. Then, total the amounts for each day and for the week. An example of a weekly spending record for Carlos Acosta is shown in the following chart. This spending record is for the week ending September 10. Weekly Spending Record Carlos Acosta For the week of September 10, 20-- Amounts Spent Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Total Fixed Expenses Bus fare to work 1.35 1.35 1.35 4.05 Savings deposit 20.00 20.00 Total Fixed Expenses 20.00 1.35 0.00 1.35 0.00 1.35 0.00 24.05 Variable Expenses School lunches 3.25 3.65 2.95 3.25 3.10 16.20 Birthday gift for sister 10.00 10.00 School music fee 22.00 22.00 Entertainment 8.95 8.95 Lunch with friends 11.45 11.45 New T-shirt 14.50 14.50 Total Variable Expenses 3.25 12.60 2.95 25.25 14.55 10.00 14.50 83.10 Total Expenses $23.25 $13.95 $2.95 $26.60 $14.55 $11.35 $14.50 $107.15