I know I am a big baby!!!

Not the "not spending", but does anyone else have a hard time constantly recording every dime they spend? It's alot of paper work (so to speak) ! i thought it would be the lack of spending that would be the hardest, but not so. We did great in January, but February, when we had a lot going on, I am finding I have no time to sit down and enter all the reciepts on to the budget worksheet.

How do you get over this "hump"?

Since we don't ever have cash, tracking every dime is easy for us. I record receipts into our register every night. Maybe you could go the no cash route?

This is one of those "You have to look at the big picture" moments. Sure it is a pain in the butt to record it all, but when you start having those "Ah-Ha" moments (you know, oh we ate out 3 times last week, Ah Ha...that's where all the money went ) you'll be glad you did it.

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Dave Ramsey actually tells you to use cash. I have not done his program, but i am really interested in trying it out. I think tracking EVERY PENNY spent would drive me crazy, but then again, i guess he might do it not only so you know where your money goes, but also so you think twice about a purchase before you make it, bec. then you know you have to go home and write it down- so you think is the purchase truly necessary?? I think it's worth the "hasle"

Yes it can be hard.. but I find I am the most successful if I enter our receipts every day. Just like everything else, the longer you wait to do something, the more it builds up, and the longer it takes to do it later.

If you work on it every day, I'll bet you spend less than 5 minutes actually typing in the information (most days.. unless you had a shoping marathon!)

Good Luck!

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-Sarah

My "Forget the Joneses" Blog: Click Here

I use a debit card which makes that part of the plan super easy for me. I don't use cash envelopes. Too involved for me. I just enter all receipts into my register every night. If I purchase something with cash, it's usually a necessity or a purchase on a whim which is no big deal...like a pack of gum or something.

If you need to use cash only, then keep your receipts in an envelope. Then, add them up and categorize them when you can.

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Are you recording every transaction so that you can figure out your budget based on those figures? We have been doing the Ramsey plan for about 18 months and I don't think we ever have tracked every dime on paper. Rather, we use cash envelopes for our spending categories that aren't bills that have a check written (like food and clothing). We put a set amount in the food envelope every month ($400 for our family) and then spend it on food, when the money's gone no more spending. I find this easier than tracking that I spent $1.50 on a coke and a pack of gum to put it in the food category in a spreadsheet. I just pull out $2 and buy it and put the change in my savings jar.

Try and keep things easy for yourself so that you don't give up...it is worth it to stick with the program. We can see the end of our debt - hopefully by December of this year. You can do it!!!

It can be a pain but it is worth it!! We usually use a debit card, we don't use a lot of cash. We started last March and last Friday we finished paying off about 20K in Debt You can do it!!! Believe me if we can so can you!!

I feel your pain. I am there too. I have a pile of receipts to log and I just don't feel like it. At first it is because I didn't have the time, now the pile is getting pretty big. But I think it is because I don't really want to know what I have spent.

I am going to tackle it tomorrow and hopefully it won't be bad.

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