I tracked my spending for 31 days, and here is what I learned…

Let's talk money, hunayyyy 💵

You may remember my pep talk (one of my most popular posts of all time!) from earlier this year all about about viewing your goals through a lens of experimentation & curiosity, rather than force & grit.

I proclaimed that I was embracing my inner Bill Nye the Science Guy and would complete 12 mini month-long “experiments” during 2024.

Everything from health to finances to habits, and self-growth— each month, I would focus on one “thing” and give myself one month to truly try and be curious about what I noticed.

And in January I kicked it off by tracking my spending every. single. day. for the entire month.

Even though I was raised to be financially independent, consider myself to be responsible with my money, and I take living below my means & saving for the future seriously…

• I also have kind of a laissez-faire approach to spending my money.

• In general— as long as more was coming in each month than what was going out, I felt fine.

And, while, that likely is fine…

Because, sure, overall I did feel confident that our finances were trending in the right direction, but I knew I could get a firmer grasp on SPECIFICALLY where our money was going, which in turn would highlight opportunities for me to optimize. 

Now I don’t know if it’s maybe since it was the beginning of a new year, or because I’m preparing to enter a new decade of life (I turn 30 next month!), but I’ve been feeling the call to be more even more strategic with my finances instead of just “good enough” and generally “on the right track”.

I know there is opportunity to be a bit more strategic, detailed, & really identify where my money is going.

So, for my first experiment of the year, I felt called to track my spending and categorize EVERY transaction. Something that I’d never really done before… 

And, I’ll be honest…I’ve tried to budget & track my spending in the past. I’d be “good” for a few days, and then kind of lose steam. I'd always failed.

But this time? I was successful. So in this post I’m going to share…

• HOW I was able to be consistently track my spending (for the first time ever!),

• What I learned from the process,

• Areas of my budget that surprised me,

• The specific areas that I was under (and over! 😅) budget

• And what I’ll take with me into the rest of the year in my finances…

Let’s go!