Poll-How Many Financial Transactions Do You Make Per Month?

[haha]

In my mind credit card and ATM are not transactions. That may work for some but I want to know what I spent the money on - lunch, groceries, gasoline, travel, and all the other details. Yes, I could probably get by with fewer categories (transactions) but the detail helps me understand where my money goes.

Categories are not transactions. I was only looking for purchase transactions, but in fact anything that will change the balance sheet is a transaction. Thus any purchase, any funds earned, any bill paid, anything that would change account balances on the assets or liabilities side of a balance sheet is a transaction. It really doesn't matter if you have different categories for Juicy Fruit gum and Dentyne gum, or if you classify both as miscellaneous, or food, or entertainment- everytime you buy any it is a transaction.

Ha

 

[JmfromTx]

Ha, being a newcomer here I hesitate to ask, but why would one want to log every single transaction they make?

 

[Khan]

Ha, being a newcomer here I hesitate to ask, but why would one want to log every single transaction they make?

To know where you are and where the money is going.

 

[traineeinvestor]

Well over a hundred a month between the two of us - we both work so twice daily taxi/bus fares, lunches, school fees, utilities, entertainment, salaries, etc etc etc and then there are the transactions from our investments.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Fewer than 25; got rid of several debts and got the check writing down to 10/month and a couple of ATM withdrawals for spending money.

Just had to jump on this post as I thought check writing was a thing of the past. Lady in the grocery line the other day and was waiting for the total on the register. She had a lot of stuff. When the cashier is finished the lady starts writing the check. It took a while. I'm thinking, "lady you know the date, you know the store you are in, you certainly know your name". Why does it take so long to write a check? I haven't written a check in over a year. Debit/credit card is the only way to go. All direct deposits, I do all my banking on line and check the account every day. Don't carry a lot of cash with me, maybe $50. I think they to outlaw checks and pennies.

 

[haha]

Ha, being a newcomer here I hesitate to ask, but why would one want to log every single transaction they make?

Well, there is really no other way to definitively answer the question-"where does my money go"?

I am not an advocate for this practice, but I have followed it for at least 20 years and I think I benefit from it. Also, it really does not take very much time, and it does focus your attention on how your money leaks away. I have become much more frugal without really trying very hard just by keeping this detailed data.

Ha

 

[obgyn65]

< 50 for me, as I buy medical supplies and meds for free clinics. Otherwise, < 25 transactions per month.

 

[sailor]

About 25 per month for me, 50 per month for DW (she does most of the shopping)

 

[Rustic23]

JmFromTx,
I really don't track the number of transactions, and I don't really track 'Cash' purchases. I do however, use Quicken and use a credit card for as many purchases as I can. Just about everything over $5. That gives me a pretty accurate account as to where the money goes, and it was easy to determine the number of transactions.

 

[braumeister]

Generally close to 100 per month (for the two of us).
I like to track everything in Quicken (entering the data at least several times a week).

I don't, however, enter small cash purchases, although I'm including them in the total here. I just have a "Cash" category that records ATM withdrawals. Less than 25% of the monthly spending is in cash.

 

[haha]

If you use Excel, the count or counta functions will give you an automatic count of the number of entries.

Ha

 

[devans0]

I am <25 including cash transactions. I don't like to shop.

 

[JmfromTx]

Well, there is really no other way to definitively answer the question-"where does my money go"?

I am not an advocate for this practice, but I have followed it for at least 20 years and I think I benefit from it. Also, it really does not take very much time, and it does focus your attention on how your money leaks away. I have become much more frugal without really trying very hard just by keeping this detailed data.

Ha

I think it would scare me if I totaled up all the money I spend on things I don't need. I'll have to be content with making sure there is money in the bank at the end of the month.

 

[Tandemlovers]

I keep track of our expenses the old fashion way, using a home/office budget spreadsheet book.
For our family of five, two in college, we average around 100 transactions per month, counting deposits, bill payments (written checks and automatic withdrawals), and credit card charges.

 

[freebird5825]

< 25
On average, my bill paying credit union account has 15 transactions - all monthly recurring bills with automatic payment + other less frequent bills by check (water bill, school taxes, county taxes, housecleaner, dog licenses). I wish the municipal bills due could be automatically deducted.
I do two transfers each month to replenish the bill paying account with a preset baseline amount to cover the known recurring bills, i.e. auto/house/boat/dental insurance, Netflix, Time Warner, utilities, etc.

I did not count individual credit card purchases. I use one cashback credit card for all of my consumer, gasoline, household, and entertainment purchases [-]and I didn't feel like counting them[/-] Ok, I counted the March credit card purchases. The answer is 20 .
I do not have automatic payment set up for my credit card. I faithfully keep all cc receipts in my wallet next to my cash. I manually pay off my credit card to coincide with bi-weekly direct deposits (pension + annuity) into my regular savings account. I carefully reconcile the posted charges against the receipts in my wallet.
If I need to put more into the bill paying account, I will do that separately so I can see what I have spent above and beyond the preset baseline amount.
The direct deposit account is incoming, the bill paying account is outgoing. It saves me the trouble of doing a separate spreadsheet.

I can review my monthly spending on a macro basis simply by downloading my monthly bill paying account statement. I can see transaction detail by printing out my credit card statement.

 

[accountingsucks]

I know the number exactly as I have been tracking for about 3.5 years. Including credit card, debit and cash transactions it has averaged 48 per month

 

[foxfirev5]

We keep it very simple. Take the higher earners paycheck and deposit it in savings or VG every payday. Live on the smaller paycheck -pay off cc completely each month. The number of transactions automatically drops to level near what it was when we first got married over 33 years ago.

 

[jebmke]

I would have no idea of tracking cash transactions.

Me neither. I do almost everything with credit card. Hit the ATM maybe once every 6-8 weeks for some mugger money.

 

[FUEGO]

56 per month. That includes all cash transactions, automatic or manual ACH transaction, and each CC purchase. That is for a family of 4, with 2 still working and 2 in school. All expense tracking is done in a spreadsheet. Most of the tracking happens after month end when I copy/paste 2 CC statements and my electronic checkbook spreadsheet into a consolidation spreadsheet, categorize those expenses, and drag/drop to their resting place in the predetermined categories I have set up. I try to focus on the purpose of the expense. Ie, one category is "fun" which includes toys, entertainment, and liquor.

 

[haha]

I try to focus on the purpose of the expense. Ie, one category is "fun" which includes toys, entertainment, and liquor.

That is the way I do it too. If I buy a dumbbell, it is "health". If I eat oysters cause I am hungry, it is food. If I take someone for an outing, it is "fun". If I should buy athletic shoes to wear around, they would be "clothes", if I bought them for the gym they would be health.

Ha