Okay, now that I’m back to regularly tracking my expenses, let’s see how I did:
| Saturday | $50.57 | Gas and tchotchkes at the Renaissance Festival | |||
| Sunday | $0.00 | ||||
| Monday | $0.00 | ||||
| Tuesday | $0.00 | ||||
| Wednesday | $9.63 | Dinner | |||
| Thursday | $10.15 | Lunch | |||
| Friday | $124.69 | Groceries, Halloween party ingredients, lunch | |||
| Total | $184.88 |
Not only are these fairly minimal expenses (and mostly due to $50 worth of Halloween party ingredients on Friday), I’m particularly proud of spending no money for three days. I didn’t intend it; I just noticed on Monday that I’d spent nothing the day before, and wondered how long I could last. I ended the run with a delicious Rueben and hot tea at a local cafe Wednesday night.
And this is one of the hidden utilities of tracking my expenses: I find unexpected ways to save money. I become much more conscious of my spending. A few months ago, I simply never would have been aware of how much I’d been spending in the previous few days.