Do you know how much you spend on various bills a week/month?

[Alpha Marine]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5539858.msg65327917#msg65327917
This is why I always advise people to know how much they spend a day, a week and a month. This is the only way you can have proper financial planning that will help you. Most people just use the money as it comes without knowing how they're spending it, that's why most time the money they made just finishes and they can't say what they used it for.

A few weeks before I made that post, I was having a conversation with someone related to bills, and when I told him how much I spend on food for the week, he screamed, "Why will you spend that much on food alone a week?". I asked him how much he spends a week, but he couldn't give me a specific range, and I told him he doesn't know he spends that much because he hasn't sat down to calculate how much he spends on feeding a week. He just spends the money without carefully planning for it.

It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't have a good personal financial plan or budget or whatever without knowing how much you spend on certain things for a period of time, preferably, one week or one month.
Try to know all the things you spend money on and how much you spend on them. I'm talking about everything, including how much you spend on the gym, drinks, movies, food, utility bills, rent, tuition fees, tuition loans repayment, investments, gambling, and anything at all that you spend money on regularly. In my opinion, this is the first step to a financial plan. It is after you've known how much you spend that you can decide to make decisions based on what you know.

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

[Cryptmuster]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5539858.msg65327917#msg65327917
This is why I always advise people to know how much they spend a day, a week and a month. This is the only way you can have proper financial planning that will help you. Most people just use the money as it comes without knowing how they're spending it, that's why most time the money they made just finishes and they can't say what they used it for.

A few weeks before I made that post, I was having a conversation with someone related to bills, and when I told him how much I spend on food for the week, he screamed, "Why will you spend that much on food alone a week?". I asked him how much he spends a week, but he couldn't give me a specific range, and I told him he doesn't know he spends that much because he hasn't sat down to calculate how much he spends on feeding a week. He just spends the money without carefully planning for it.

It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't have a good personal financial plan or budget or whatever without knowing how much you spend on certain things for a period of time, preferably, one week or one month.
Try to know all the things you spend money on and how much you spend on them. I'm talking about everything, including how much you spend on the gym, drinks, movies, food, utility bills, rent, tuition fees, tuition loans repayment, investments, gambling, and anything at all that you spend money on regularly. In my opinion, this is the first step to a financial plan. It is after you've known how much you spend that you can decide to make decisions based on what you know.

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

I think that this can work for you only at the very beginning, when, for example, you are just starting to live on your own, looking for or have already found your first job, earning quite little, you need to pay for housing, you need to count every penny so that you have enough for food, clothes and so on. In this case, yes, it would not hurt to know your expenses exactly, but even without this, you will not be able to spend more, because you have very little money.

Then your earnings will grow, and you will be able to save more and manage your money more skillfully, but I will say one thing, you need to strive to earn more, and not count every penny and focus on how much you spent on food, per week or month, how much you spent on clothes and other things you need. Just strive to earn more.

[Sanitough]

I guess that's one of my problems now. I know how much I'm earning, but somehow I still overspend every month. It's kinda funny because I know how to make a business planm, but when it comes to myself, I can't even manage my spending properly.

Thanks for your topic! I think it's time I take this seriously.
I'll start making a monthly budget now.

[Die_empty]

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

It might be easier for people who are unmarried or live alone to have an accurate record of how much they spend on certain products or services. For people who care for large families, expenses are something many and impromptu. Sometimes you just keep spending and spending that you lose count of how much you have spent. In some cases, you have to seek funds from other sources to take care of an emergency.

But I accept totally that having a budget is important. Funds should be allocated to different areas of need. But I don't really care about having a financial record. if I am able to spend within my budget, save for emergencies and still have enough to invest, I think I am not doing badly financially.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

I guess that's one of my problems now. I know how much I'm earning, but somehow I still overspend every month. It's kinda funny because I know how to make a business planm, but when it comes to myself, I can't even manage my spending properly.

Thanks for your topic! I think it's time I take this seriously.
I'll start making a monthly budget now.

Your biggest problem is not knowing how much you spend although it is important to know how much you earn. You problem now is knowing what are the less important things to cut out.
What i do is give myself a best possible amount and the least possible amount I can save a week in relation to what I earn that week.

This has helped me a lot because during the week I try so hard to keep to the best possible outcome I can save a week, the chase for this help me cut away some less important spending so even if I don’t achieve my highest possible saving a week I am most time in the middle between the highest and the lowest and this is very good.

[DYING_S0UL]

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

It might be easier for people who are unmarried or live alone to have an accurate record of how much they spend on certain products or services. For people who care for large families, expenses are something many and impromptu. Sometimes you just keep spending and spending that you lose count of how much you have spent. In some cases, you have to seek funds from other sources to take care of an emergency.

But I accept totally that having a budget is important. Funds should be allocated to different areas of need. But I don't really care about having a financial record. if I am able to spend within my budget, save for emergencies and still have enough to invest, I think I am not doing badly financially.

I was doing the same thing when I was living alone in the town for work and study! I had to plan out everything carefully to limit my spendings, because I had a specific budget for each month. I used to keep track of all my expenses on mobile app, and it worked pretty well for me. As a result, I never ran out of money because I knew exactly how much I had, how much I had already spent, and how much I could spend later. Keeping a record of your spendings is certainly a good thing as it would be beneficial in the long term.

Yeah when it comes to family, keeping the record and limiting your budget gets a little complicated. You never know when will you mother/father/daughter/son/wife would ask for anything. You have to fulfil their wishes no matter what even when you don't do yours. We men do a lot of things for the sake of our loved ones. Also, you know know when a emergency might occur.

[Hewlet]

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

It is much easier for the singles to have a weekly budget and stick to it till the end but for the married,  and those that have a lot of responsibilities, and a lot of family obligations that comes up at the time we least expect, it's always deficult to effectively have a working budget we can stick to. Most times, you just have to continue spending as needs continues to show up. Because you can't meet all of them, you just have to budget a percentage you're going to keep for for all compulsory expenses while a percentage goes as savings that you can't touch. With this kind of settings, you try to manage your expenses such that only the allocation that goes into your expenses is the one that is allowed for your spending regardless of the wants that will arrise.

Wants are said to be insatiable and so, if you allow the needs you're facing to eat you up, they will keep coming till you end up spending it all before the month runs to an end which will make you to continue eating from hand to mouth.

[slapper]

This is one of those basic truths that everyone hears, nods at, and then proceeds to ignore, until they’re broke and confused about where the hell all their income went. People think they’re too “free” or “intuitive” to track spending, as if awareness equals restriction

The thing is, most people confuse financial control with control over outcomes. But those aren’t the same. You can’t control your returns on investment, but you can absolutely control your inputs: your spending, your habits, your consumption patterns. That’s the only rational leverage you’ve got in a probabilistic, chaotic system. And ironically, it’s the one most people abandon in favor of vague optimism

You also pointed to something: people react emotionally to your awareness because it unconsciously exposes their own blindness. When you say “I spend $X/week on food”, it’s about the reflection. It threatens the illusion that they’re in control when in fact they’re just operating on auto-pilot with no auditing system

Financial awareness isn’t even about budgeting. It’s about reclaiming clarity in a system designed to dull your perception through subscriptions, microtransactions, convenience costs, dopamine loops. A basic weekly breakdown is revolutionary because it re-establishes agency. Most won’t do it. That’s why most won’t get far

[Rruchi man]

Try to know all the things you spend money on and how much you spend on them. I'm talking about everything, including how much you spend on the gym, drinks, movies, food, utility bills, rent, tuition fees, tuition loans repayment, investments, gambling, and anything at all that you spend money on regularly. In my opinion, this is the first step to a financial plan. It is after you've known how much you spend that you can decide to make decisions based on what you know.

Having an idea of the amount and quantity of consumables that you use within a period of time is definitely the first step in drafting out a financial plan to manage your finances. Without an idea of what you consume, we would never be able to accurately plan because all plans made without actual figures are all speculative and will never be effective in managing finance.

While trying to make a plan to accommodate your spending, I believe it's wise to not just plan with the exact figures but increase it slightly and plan with it because with the constantly changing economy, your budget or your plan may quickly become obsolete once the price of goose suddenly changes and it has a reflection on the cost of bills.

For example, if you calculated that you consume $300 worth of food monthly or weekly, plan with $305.

[Darker45]

If you have more than enough money flowing in regularly and you're living a simple life, meaning you're living below your means, I guess you don't have to do this. Let's say you're earning around $4,000 a month and you're only spending around half of it. You're not necessarily aware of it other than the fact that you still have much left by the time your next salary comes in. If it's like this, I don't think you need monitoring.

However, if you notice that you're running out of funds before your next pay day, that's your alarm sounding. That's a call for you to monitor your finances.

[bitLeap]

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

It is true that I have seen many people or close friends able to improve their economy because every time they spend they always use bookkeeping. They said that at first it must have felt quite heavy because they were not used to everything having to be included in the financial report. But with the evaluation they did, they were able to find out the budget that was necessary and unnecessary to spend. I have tried it but it only lasted a few months because once again having to always make reports in the bookkeeping makes us not feel free to buy some of our favorite items. Maybe I should change the way the bookkeeping is done to make it a little simpler.

[Majestic-milf]

I also find it quite challenging to keep track of my expenses in a week. I'd tell myself that in this week, this is the particular amount that would cover for feeding, clothes and other basic items then allot funds to it but before it gets to mid week, I find myself making another expense that should have covered for the above listed things and I must admit it's quite annoying. Should I blame it on the economy that has made things so expensive that what you Budget for doesn't always be enough to take you through the week or is it that there's something I'm not doing properly because sometimes it becomes pointless to plan.

[Spaceman1000$]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5539858.msg65327917#msg65327917
This is why I always advise people to know how much they spend a day, a week and a month. This is the only way you can have proper financial planning that will help you. Most people just use the money as it comes without knowing how they're spending it, that's why most time the money they made just finishes and they can't say what they used it for.

A few weeks before I made that post, I was having a conversation with someone related to bills, and when I told him how much I spend on food for the week, he screamed, "Why will you spend that much on food alone a week?". I asked him how much he spends a week, but he couldn't give me a specific range, and I told him he doesn't know he spends that much because he hasn't sat down to calculate how much he spends on feeding a week. He just spends the money without carefully planning for it.

It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't have a good personal financial plan or budget or whatever without knowing how much you spend on certain things for a period of time, preferably, one week or one month.
Try to know all the things you spend money on and how much you spend on them. I'm talking about everything, including how much you spend on the gym, drinks, movies, food, utility bills, rent, tuition fees, tuition loans repayment, investments, gambling, and anything at all that you spend money on regularly. In my opinion, this is the first step to a financial plan. It is after you've known how much you spend that you can decide to make decisions based on what you know.

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

Even the federal government of most countries have a national budget passed every year, the budget is the breakdown of expenditure of the government in every fiscal year, it's a run down on what the government are to spend on a daily basis, weekly, monthly and the entire year. This budget guide's their spending as they cannot go beyond what they've budgeted for.

This is what we should also emulate in our daily life's, by looking at what we earn and map out a spending pattern for a day, for a week and the entire month, in doing so, you can easily identify whenever you've gone out of your budget and readjust your spending. Budgeting makes you financially discipline, it creates an opportunity for you to save more.

[m2017]

It may seem like too formal work, but it really isn't that deep. You don't need to make financial books nd all that, just a simple run down of things you spend money on a month and how much you spend is enough.
It doesn't have to be a specific number, it is usually a range. For example, you can say you spend 70-100 on gambling a month.

On the contrary, it should be a financial book to control your budget spending. This is one of the foundations of financial literacy. Thanks to these statistics, you can understand where the budget is spent irrationally and adjust it. Analysis is impossible if there is no statistical data for past months / years.

I also disagree about the range. The data must be accurate. Therefore, all expenses (and income) should be indicated in the financial book. This will allow you to control your budget and allocate "extra" money that can be used, for example, for investing.

[avikz]

Expense tracking is extremely important! There's a Japanese technique called Kakeibo. During the initial days of my career, I used to follow this and it worked like a magic. In a couple of months, I was able to block all expense loopholes which immediately improved my financial stability. I don't find time to do it now. But my bank app does it automatically by categorising the expenses.

People who are young and needs budgeting, can implement a simple good sheet which can be used from mobile. This is very very useful technique.

[Despairo]

It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't have a good personal financial plan or budget or whatever without knowing how much you spend on certain things for a period of time, preferably, one week or one month.

Nah, if you're a billionaire and live minimalist, you don't need to care about how much you spend because you will never spend more than what you earn. Example myself, honestly I'm not rich, far from rich I think, but I earn enough and I always live using the same lifestyle for few years, I didn't track how much I spent, but in the end my money always growing.

Budgeting is time wasting if you're not a businessman or you have earn more than average.

[Ishicryptic]

Budgeting is very important for everybody whether you are rich or poor, if you spend exactly according to how you earn you will become broke on the long run, except for multi billionaires that their profits are unimaginable. If you earn $1m in a month and your expenses is around $1m you will become broke if the source of income stops or you are hit with an unexpected expenses. Also if you are earning $100 and your expenses is within that range you will go broke if unexpected expenses arises. Have a budget and in it you should let your expenses to fall bellow your income, that way you can have reserve funds for saving and investment. Never spend everything that you earn, always keep some, no matter how little for the unexpected.

[Felicity_Tide]

I guess that's one of my problems now. I know how much I'm earning, but somehow I still overspend every month. It's kinda funny because I know how to make a business planm, but when it comes to myself, I can't even manage my spending properly.

Thanks for your topic! I think it's time I take this seriously.
I'll start making a monthly budget now.

One thing I can assure myself of, is telling myself that I don't need certain things at a particular moment, and I rather prefer to keep my money instead. But at some point, I would realized that I have spent more than usual in a very short period, (especially when it has to do with something that is going straight into the stomach). I can remember having a walk with a friend few days back, and he was literally complaining to me how he has spent so much. After telling me how much he has spent, I realized that my own situation was even worse.

The thing is, things like this will certainly happen, but as long as we have that discipline to always deprive/deny ourselves from certain things at some point, we should be able to manage the whole situation. Planning is important, but we all can genuinely agree that we sometimes fail to live by own rules.

[bitzizzix]

For those who are married, knowing or recording weekly or monthly expenses in my opinion will not be stable or consistent because there will be unexpected expenses for both wife and children, unlike people who are still single and it is very easy because it is for their own interests and if something happens or something desired happens unexpectedly, it can still be controlled if it is not too important or there are other alternatives.

However, for those who are married, even though they record important expenses for a week or a month, they still have to provide emergency funds or funds for unexpected needs because we do not live alone because there are wives and children who we will not know for sure there will be unexpected expenses, especially if our children are already in school. And recording expenses is good and also important so that we know what the money is used for and how much it is during a week or a month and most likely it will not be stable or consistent if it is not done very strictly, disciplined and also firm but I will not be able to do that because my principle is that my money will flow abundantly if I am generous to my wife and children because the money I get is mostly for their livelihood, the most important thing is that I am disciplined to always set aside for important needs and other interests and also increase income.

[Frankolala]

[
It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't have a good personal financial plan or budget or whatever without knowing how much you spend on certain things for a period of time, preferably, one week or one month.
Try to know all the things you spend money on and how much you spend on them. I'm talking about everything, including how much you spend on the gym, drinks, movies, food, utility bills, rent, tuition fees, tuition loans repayment, investments, gambling, and anything at all that you spend money on regularly. In my opinion, this is the first step to a financial plan. It is after you've known how much you spend that you can decide to make decisions based on what you know.

Calculating everything means that you will just use your weekly or monthly income to get the amount. This is because if you say everything, it means that your funds is already exhausted. Personally, I don't save any funds in fiat. What I do is that, my extra funds after taking care of my important needs used to be put into bitcoin. However, sometimes I get angry that I spent too much on a particular week and invest very little. This is because of some unforeseen challenges that arises.