Last December, my wife and I decided to track our expenses for the entirety of 2020. We’re in the final stretch of this experiment so I’d like to take a moment to write about our experience.
Disclaimer
I’ll start out by saying this was an odd year.
Obviously.
Mrs. FIM and I have been working from home since mid-March and living in quarantine. It goes without saying that we can’t assume this data is on par with a non-pandemic year. Regardless, it was an eye-opening experience that puts us in a stronger position for when things return to normal.
I will add one more note that we made a 2020 resolution to stop eating out, so we had essentially cut out restaurants and take out even before the pandemic started. I only say this because I imagine that for many, their expenses went down due to eating out less because of the pandemic. This was not much of a factor for us.
Results
Take a look at this graph. These were our monthly expenses for 2020.
You can see by June we really started to figure things out. We quickly realized where we could save money: groceries, entertainment, fashion. We also managed to lower our insurance and internet bills.
Difficulty
How difficult was it for us to keep track of our expenses?
It wasn’t.
At all.
I created a Google Sheet that I adapted as the year went on. Feel free to use the template I created and adjust as needed.
To use the Google Sheet, go to File>Make A Copy. This will create an editable version in your own Google Drive folder. You can add or remove columns as needed, but be careful moving cells around. There are many conditions within the sheet that can break.
From there, we plugged in numbers as we went. Because we hardly ever use cash, we could reference our credit card and bank statements to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Before we get into what we learned, I want to point out some tips to follow if you’re interested in tracking your spending.
Tip #1: Add notes to each expense
Ten months from now, you won’t remember what that $26.94 entertainment purchase was. In Google Sheets, simply right-click the cell after you enter the dollar amount and click “Insert Note”. Taking notes on every expense will help you later on when you’re looking at the big picture.
That $26.94 expense was for the game Exploding Kittens. If anyone out there wants to play, let me know. Mrs. FI Musician hates it and refuses to play with me.
Tip #2: Split purchases into different groups
For the first half of the year we lumped everything we bought at the grocery store under the “Groceries” category, just because it was on a single receipt. Around July we realized that this doesn’t give us a clear picture of how much we spend on food, alcohol, or household items (laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, etc). Once we began to split the expenses, we had a much clearer understanding of where our money was going.
It takes a few more minutes to separate these items, but well worth it for the data we received. To help keep sales tax data clean, I recommend self-bagging at the grocery store and completing multiple sales. Pay for your food, alcohol, and household items as separate transactions. Then you can just plug in each receipt amount with the correct sales tax applied to each category.
Tip #3: Add date of purchase to notes
Similar to tip #1, we realized it was helpful to know the date we bought certain items. In particular, food. It makes a difference knowing that the $100 we spent on groceries on October 31st was actually food for November.
Tip #4: Separate business expenses from personal expenses
As with many freelance artists, Mrs. FIM and I have our own businesses, which have expenses throughout the year. Mrs. FIM purchases music and has instrument repairs. I have monthly software bills and video equipment purchases. We do not count these in our monthly expenses, as they are part of our businesses. When I purchase a new camera, that is an investment in my business and has nothing to do with how I use my personal money. It’s important to keep these two areas separate to understand what you spend in your personal life, vs. the expenses required to operate your business.
What we learned
After a year of tracking our expenses, we look at money differently now. It’s not that we suddenly think anything that costs $5 is expensive. We just assess the value of products with a different mindset.
Small expenses add up quickly. It’s so easy to see why people who don’t track their spending don’t understand why they have no money left to invest. I know because that was me a year ago.
When you mark down every cup of coffee, every parking receipt, and every Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube Music, Spotify, (the list goes on) account, you start to see how these small purchases become a major part of your monthly budget.
A $3.00 cup of coffee doesn’t seem like much, but if you buy that same cup of coffee five days a week for an entire year, you’ve spent $780 on coffee.
I use this as an example because Mrs. FIM loves coffee. Having a cup of coffee is part of her daily routine and depriving herself of it would lower her quality of life. But she also recognizes that she doesn’t need a $3 cup of coffee from a café. Making a cup of joe at home yields the same level of happiness, while simultaneously saving hundreds of dollars each year.
Even more importantly, knowing that she’s saving hundreds of dollars each year by brewing coffee at home brings her additional joy because she knows she’s making an educated decision on where she gets her coffee from. She’s in the driver’s seat of her expenses.
^ Not being in control of the driver's seat or your coffee.
This is the crux of this post. By keeping track of your expenses, you will quickly realize what you value. When we started tracking expenses a year ago, I thought it would be exhausting. Instead, it left us with excitement, happiness, and a feeling of control.
Next steps
We just sat down this weekend and used the data we collected to plan our budget for 2021. Our goal is to save 75% of our income. Using this year’s expenses, we were able make educated decisions on where we want to cut back so that we can reach that goal. We’ll keep you updated on our savings goal throughout 2021.
Challenge
I challenge you to keep track of your expenses through 2021. Whether your goal is to reach financial independence, or just have more control of your life, I promise you this exercise will leave you feeling stronger and happier.
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