How to Track and Review your Budget

Once you have implemented your budget you are ready to start tracking your actual spending. Why should you track your spending?

What isn't measured isn't managed.

Tracking your spending will help you become increasingly financially aware of where your money is going. This in turn will help you understand the true impact of your spending and where you aren't sticking to your budget.

"BEWARE OF LITTLE EXPENSES; A SMALL LEAK WILL SINK A GREAT SHIP." - Benjamin Franklin

So how do you track your spending? I would recommend using Money Dashboard - Neon. You can either use the app or use the software on your desktop. It is free to sign up and has open banking technology that allows you to link your bank account up to the site. This automatically loads all of your transactions onto the site.

You only need to link up your bank account that will be used to pay for your Needs and Wants from your budget. This is because all of the other costs you would have allocated in your budget are fixed. With the costs associated with your Needs and Wants, they will vary from month to month. It is important you track these at least for a few months just so that you are fully aware of your spending habits.

You can categorise the transactions using the categories from your budget (for example, food out at Zizzi's can be categorised as experiences). You also have the option to create your own categories to fit in with what you have budgeted for.

Throughout the month you can see the breakdown of your spending in "Overview". This will help you to identify areas where you have either gone over or under budget.

By grouping your transactions to each category you can easily see where you may have overspent. This will raise your awareness of your own spending habits and hopefully help you to avoid it happening again in the future.

For example, you might have exceeded your eating out budget because you simply went out more times than you anticipated. Being aware of this going forward will help you further understand when you can actually afford to go out to eat. Or you might decide that you haven't budgeted enough money for eating out and will allocate more money to this going forward.

"IT'S NOT YOUR SALARY THAT MAKES YOU RICH, IT'S YOUR SPENDING HABITS." - Charles A. Jaffe

If you are new to budgeting I would recommend reviewing your spending against your budget for at least a month or two. You will be surprised as to the actual amount of money you spend vs what you thought you would spend.