Spending Log: Free Monthly Expense Tracking Printable
This page may contain links from our sponsors. Here’s how we make money.
Today we have a free resource that can help with your own money management by tracking your expenses. This is a printable PDF spending log that makes it easy to record your expenses.
Why Should You Track Your Expenses?
Let’s take a look at why you should track your expenses and what you’ll gain from doing it.
1. Know Where Your Money is Really Going
Creating a budget is great, but a budget doesn’t show you where your money is really going unless you are tracking and recording your expenses. When you’re tracking your expenses you will know exactly how much you are spending, and how it is being spent.
2. Know if You’re Staying Within Your Budget
The budget is an ideal scenario that you want to follow, but do you know if you are really sticking to the limits you’ve set with your budget? The budget and tracking expenses go hand in hand. Each one is important to the other.
3. Accountability
Tracking your expenses will hold you accountable for each dollar that you spend. I first started tracking my expenses in my last year of college, which was the first time I was living on my own and responsible for paying bills every month. It’s amazing how much it impacted the way I spent money. I knew I would have to record every purchase, and that made me very hesitant to spend money on anything that wasn’t necessary because I didn’t want to regret it later.
4. Identify Problem Areas
Tracking expenses will help you to immediately identify problem areas where you are spending too much money.
If you haven’t tracked expenses in the past, chances are, you’ll be surprised at some of the things that you see immediately with the help of this habit. For example, you may be shocked at how much money your spending at restaurants each month.
When you see the totals from the different categories of expenses, you’ll probably see a few that stick out to you right away as being too high. Once you know where your problem areas are, you can make the necessary changes and start saving more money.
5. Motivation to Save
The combination of budgeting and tracking your expenses will give you plenty of motivation to manage your money wisely, and save more of it. Seeing your expenses going down and your savings going up is rewarding, and will probably make you want to save and invest even more.
Free Download!
The spending log is available in our free Resource Library, which is accessible to our email subscribers. If you’d like to download these files, please use the form below to subscribe.
Easy Ways to Cut Back
Now that we’ve covered everything related to tracking expenses, let’s take a look at a few easy ways that you can reduce your monthly expenses. These are “easy wins” that help you to free up more room in your budget. You’ll be able to save or pay off debt faster. Here are a few of my favorites, but for a much more detailed look at the subject please see 40 Smart Ways to Reduce Your Monthly Bills.
TV
How much do you spend on TV service each month? Both cable and satellite TV can be very expensive, but there are some much more reasonable cable alternatives.
My wife and I canceled cable several years ago, and we’ve saved a ton of money over that period of time (a few thousand dollars from my calculations). My favorite cable alternative is Sling, because you get live TV and your selection of channels at a very low monthly price. Hulu is also a great option. Netflix is an amazing deal too (even after the rate increases), but some people don’t like how TV shows are released once per year.
Lower Your Bills Easily with Trim’s Help
Trim is a free app that can help you to save money each month. Trim will negotiate on your behalf to get your cable and internet bills reduced. There is no upfront cost. Trim will keep 33% of whatever they are able to save you, and if they can’t save you any money, you pay nothing. I’ve used Trim and they were able to reduce our Comcast bill. Try Trim here.
Trim is an app that can save you money in a few different ways. You can allow Trim to negotiate your bill for things like cable TV, internet access, and wireless phone service. It's an easy way to save!
Cell Phone Service
How much do you pay each month for mobile phone coverage? If you’re using one of the leading providers, you could probably save some money very easily by switching to a discounted carrier. A few years ago my wife and I switched from one of the leading carriers to a discount prepaid provider and our monthly bill was cut in half. We saved more than $800 per year! We use Cricket Wireless and the quality of service is excellent (they use AT&T’s network).
If you sign up for Cricket Wireless through my referral link, you can get a $25 account credit.
Another excellent option is FreedomPop. They have extremely low-priced plans available.
Cashback Apps
Cashback apps make it easy to save some money on purchases that you need to make anyway. My favorites include Rakuten, Ibotta, and TopCashback.
- Rakuten is offering a $10 signup bonus. You’ll need to make a purchase of at least $25 within 90 days in order to receive the bonus.
- Ibotta offers $20 in signup bonuses that are available to you after you create an account and login.
- TopCashback doesn’t offer a signup bonus, but they do offer high percentages of cashback for many of your purchases.
Ibotta is one of the best cashback apps you need to be using if you like to save money. Save money at Walmart, Amazon, Target, Best Buy, grocery stores, and more.
- Save online and in-store
- Save on the things you already buy
- Withdraw directly to your bank or to PayPal
- Get $5 back on your first purchase
Start a Side Hustle
Aside from cutting back, another way to free up more money for saving is to start a side hustle. There are countless ways that you can make extra money outside of a job
A side hustle can even be fun if you choose something that you enjoy. Several years ago, I started a photography side hustle and I was able to make money doing something that was fun for me.
If you’re not sure what side hustle to pursue, try our free side hustle quiz that will help you to find some options that are ideal for you.
Investment Platforms
Features:
|
Features:
|
Features:
|
- Commission-free trades of stocks and ETFs
- Buy and sell 25+ different cryptocurrencies
- Fractional shares
- Access alternative investments
- High-yield treasuries accounts
- Social community of investors
- User-friendly interface
- Commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs, options, and ADRs
- Powerful screening and charting tools
- Free real-time level 2 data
- User-friendly mobile app
- AI monitoring
- AI-powered price forecasts
- Free investing courses
- Commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrency
- Buy fractional shares for any amount
- Extended trading hours
- Advanced reporting tools
- Schedule recurring investments
- IRAs now available
- 24/7 customer service