1 30-Day Expense Tracking Essay Jair M. M. Then Sánchez (1135996) Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, University of Curaçao Dr. Moises Da Costa Gomez S-SMALLB-2022: Small Business Financial Decision Making Mr. Daniel Corsen, MSc. December 19, 2021 2 30 Day Expense Tracking Essay For this assignment, we had to track our expenses for 30 days. The assignment aims to identify your spending habits and teaches you how to handle your finances and save money. I was very surprised at some of my spending habits after finishing the 30 days and now I am more cautious with my expenses. The 30 days expense tracking assignment was not very difficult, but one of the first challenges I encountered in the first week was rather to use an app on my phone or the excel sheet to record my transactions. I have chosen the excel sheet because I found the spreadsheet to be very simple and direct which made it easier for me to analyze my transactions. The next challenge I encountered was when to record my transactions, once a day or once a week. In the first week, I tried to record my transactions by the end of each day. For the first few days, it went very well but after a couple of days, I started to miss some days. It all depended on how busy I was for the day, and I was not accustomed to recording my transaction every day. For the second week I tried to record all my transactions once a week on Sundays, because I thought it would be easier because I rarely use cash and most of my transactions are made via my debit card and I could see them online, but this method of recording my transactions ended up being harder than I thought because most of the companies’ names were not the same one my bank statement, therefore I had to think hard to remember all the places I went in that particular week and this took a lot more time than just recording the transactions every day, therefore for the third week I tried to record my transactions every day again. I understood that recording my transaction once a week can lead to forgetting transactions and that could lead to inaccurate that data which can lead to bad/poor financial decisions. After a month of tracking my transactions, I have learned a lot about my spending habits. I rarely buy new clothes, shoes, material things or go out. This month I bought some clothes that I found at a good price on black Friday but usually, I only buy clothes once a year or for special occasions. After doing this assignment I have realized that I have an area that needs a little improvement. I tend to eat at a lot of fast-food restaurants than I thought. I was very surprised at how much I have spent on fast food in 30 days. For the upcoming months, I will surely try to lower my fast-food consumption not only because it cost me a lot more than I thought but to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. Another way I think that would help me improve my spending habits is by making use of my two checking accounts, one can be to pay for my fixed expenses and the other one for my variable 3 expense and every month just transfer the budgeted amount of funds for the variable expenses. This will surely help me not to go over my budget each month. Another thing that surprised me was the bank fees I was paying for taking out money at an ATM with my debit card due to my debit card being from Aruba. Another area that I find I need some improvement is setting more financial goals like adding more funds to my emergency fund each month, saving more money for future investments. In conclusion, I find this assignment to be an essential exercise because it has helped me become more aware of where my money was going because if you don’t know where your money is going you won’t be able to recognize your negative spending behavior that you can easily change that will eventually save you from bad financial decisions. Additionally, I find it helped me a lot throughout the month to be more accountable for my finances. One of the most essential parts of this assignment is that it let you see the budgeted amount I had at the beginning of the month versus what I spend by the end of the month. This showed me the areas that perhaps I need to add more funds to the budget like groceries so I could make it till the end of the month and buy less food from fast-food restaurants. It also showed me areas I have been neglecting like savings and my emergency fund. By doing this exercise for a couple more months I know for sure that I will budget more realistic numbers for each category. All in all this assignment has thought me to save more, spend less, and make the necessary changes to my finances that could will help create wealth and help me reach my financial goals.
