As we are about to finish the first year of tracking our expenses, I'm appalled at frankly the fat in our spending that could easily be cut (and therefore increase savings). Furthermore, and more troubling, though, is we actually spend more on the "basics" than I believed and we are thinking about reworking the "magic number" required for FIRE.
It's really odd; we thought we knew where our money was going but this experience has been a real eye-opener. Next year, we are going to break out even more categories; this should help with a retirement budget since some of our expenses should go away soon.
I'm just using Excel and it works fine. I do the detail by month, with another annual summary page. We are using the data collected this year to create a realistic budget for 2010 that trims some of the fat and increases savings. My suggestion is that if you've never tracked your expenses, give it a try.
It's really odd; we thought we knew where our money was going but this experience has been a real eye-opener. Next year, we are going to break out even more categories; this should help with a retirement budget since some of our expenses should go away soon.
I'm just using Excel and it works fine. I do the detail by month, with another annual summary page. We are using the data collected this year to create a realistic budget for 2010 that trims some of the fat and increases savings. My suggestion is that if you've never tracked your expenses, give it a try.