Showerthought: I was tracking my spending wrong for years without knowing it

I finally realized my grocery budget was always blown because I was only counting the big weekly trip, not the three smaller convenience store runs. Has anyone else found a better way to track those small, sneaky purchases?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerkim4d ago

My old roommate used a jar system for cash. He'd put fifty bucks in a jar on Monday for "incidentals" like coffee and snacks. By Thursday it was always empty, but he swore it made him stop buying dumb stuff because he had to physically see the money leave. I tried it for a month and just felt guilty watching the jar empty so fast.

price.jake4d ago

Had to physically see the money leave" sounds like a lot of extra stress. It's just coffee. Feeling guilty over a few bucks seems worse than just spending it. The whole point of having some cash is to use it for small things. Making a big deal out of snacks makes life harder than it needs to be.