Former Slacker

Last time, I wrote about only paying in cash as a part of personal finance tracking, and why I think it’s unrealistic. This time, I want to talk about the other much-touted method for tracking personal expenses: Write down every expense.

The Good
Unlike only paying in cash, I feel that writing down every expense is somewhat reasonable. The benefits are obvious. Since you’re writing down every expense, every single penny that you spend is accounted for, whether you are paying with cash, credit, check, or debit. There’s no question of where your money is going, and if you also keep a running expense total, you should be able to state, at any moment, how much money you have available.

The Bad (or at least The Bothersome)
However, I feel that writing down every expense is also less than optimal. Let’s face it, writing down every single expense is inconvenient. You have to constantly carry a pad of paper and a pen. If you already do this, then writing down every expense might not be such a problem. However, I’ve never managed to follow this rule for more than a few weeks. It’s just too much trouble. I never carry a pen or paper, and don’t want to. I feel my pockets are crowded enough.

The Other
A slight variation on this theme is to keep every receipt. The basic idea is the same, and so are most of the benefits. However, saving receipts allows you to avoid the need to carry a pen and paper. Unfortunately, saving receipts has a tendency to thicken the wallet, and not in a good way. Some weeks, I barely spend anything, and during those weeks, savings receipts is easy. Other weeks, I have tons of purchases, and carrying a dozen receipts becomes tedious. The wallet I carry is tiny, and barely has room for what’s already in it. Stuffing twenty reciepts inside doesn’t exactly serve to lighten the load.

To be honest, there’s no extremely compelling reason not to save receipts or to write down expenses. Doing either of those things carries some obvious benefits, and the drawbacks aren’t nearly as severe as only carrying cash. It’s just not the most convenient thing to do. Next time, I’ll explain what I do instead, which I think carries most of the benefits of saving receipts, but without all the hassle.