When I was younger I really struggled with money. I tried not to spend too much money, but I didn’t really worry about how much I had. This led to some difficult times when I would overdraw accounts on occasion.

When this would happen I just kept to my ways and just tried to spend even less. I never really understood how money worked, or how to properly manage it. I still struggle sometimes, and will go through periods where I don’t focus on my money much. This always leads to me getting myself into trouble.

I make enough money to cover all my expenses, but when I don’t track them I tend to spend too much. A few years ago I started tracking my spending with Google Sheets, or Google’s version of Excel. When I started I made it way too complicated. I tried planning out every month through the year, tried to plan for the changes in finances between the seasons.

I find many people think tracking their finances is too hard, that its even scary. The thing is, the people who want to track their finances the least, often need to track them the most. It is hard to do it at first, but once you build the habit its really easy.

Figure out what your expenses were for last month. I am talking bills, food, gas, that’s it. Then find out what your income for last month was. Hopefully this will be bigger then the first number. If it is, set aside money to pay all the necessary things, then set aside some for savings. The money that is left is your fun money, money to go out to eat and such.

If your expenses going out is more then what is going in, then you have some cutting to do. Cut back on what you are buying for non essential food items, cut back on how much driving you are doing if you can. Stop some of your subscription services, like Netflix. AND PAY OFF YOUR DAMN DEBT.

Most people, in the US at least, should be able to pay for reasonable housing, food, and a running car with a easy to find job. The job may not be fun, but you can live off seasonal work if you have too, I have friends who do.

The message I am trying to send is, you probably have enough money to cover your expenses. Many people who don’t budget will find it hard to keep track of spending, but if you take just a little time to budget things out, you will be fine. It will at least let you know where you stand, and how much more money you need to make a month.

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