money diaries

Hello friends! One of my goals this year is to practice better financial hygiene by tracking my spending on a Google Spreadsheet so I would have a clear idea of where my money was going and where to make adjustments. Albeit, I was in LA for the New Year so I decided to let myself live a little while I was home and didn't start until I was back in the city on the 6th. But! I did stick to it for the week of 1/6-1/13.

Here's what I recorded: a grand total of $309 spent. Below are the leading categories:

🚇Transit = $58 

🥐Non-Essential Food = $106

🌿Lifestyle Things = $70 

A few caveats, takeaways & explanations:

• I usually have my MTA Weekly Passes taken out pre-tax but I recently lost my wallet and lost the debit card I use for those purchases--hence they ended up being out of pocket
• The Uber charge for $24 was from JFK back to my apartment and this was after a $15 credit that my Amex Platinum card gives me
• I need to cancel AMC Stubs which adds $20 to things I consider "lifestyle" expenditures. Although I do watch a lot of movies, I got free AMC tickets for Christmas and should use those up first
• I purchased a $50 plant on a whim that I did not need and did not plan for

For the following week my goals are:

• Spend less on "non-essential food" purchases
• Plan out purchases, and don't spend more than $30 on any unplanned lifestyle thing 

Also fun tidbit--this week I ran out of toothpaste, floss, and some general cleaning products like sponges so I logged onto Shopyourway, a site that gives you points for your Uber rides. The points are redeemed for goods shipped to you or picked up from a nearby Kmart. Thankfully, there's a Kmart in the East Village (Cooper Square!) and I had around $40 in points to redeem for all of those things.

Here's a full breakdown of my spending for anyone interested: