An easier way to keep track of our spending

Ruth and I keep track of every penny we spend. We were doing that even when we had "normal" lives. We found that it was easier to see where frivolous spending was going, and where we could cut back. And doing it daily meant that we could easily see if we were overspending, and when it was time to cut back.

In the old days, it was a simple piece of paper... adding everything up by hand. Then it the late 1990's we got a computer and that made things a little easier. As time went on, I made myself an Excel spreadsheet that keeps annual track of our spending.

Up until recently, as we went through our day, Ruth would write down every expenditure by hand into a little book she carries with her. Then in the evening I would write them down on the laptop and add things up. Every once in a while I would get lazy and have to do three or four days at a time!

So I started looking for a better way to do it. A lot of research led me to the Travel-Spend App.

After all, I'm carrying around the phone anyhow. It only made sense to use it for what it was made for! The only problem was finding the right app. There are a lot of general budgeting apps, and there are a lot of travel budget apps. I needed something that combined the two.

The basic version of the Travel-Spend app is free. And for a lot of people who are just going on vacation, that's probably all you would need. But I wanted the flexibility of being able to change the categories to my own, so I opted for the Premium version.

I set up the categories the way I wanted them.

The app is designed for travel... and it's obviously been made by people who actually do travel. However it is also easy to use as a day to day spending app as well, even when you're not traveling. That's one of the things I really like about it.

Once I had the categories set up my way, the next thing to do is to add a trip. Because we are keeping track on a monthly basis, I simply add a trip and name it by the month, and have the trip last the full month. But people using it by vacation can simply add their own parameters. I found it really easy to set up.

I set up my trips as months of the year.

You can see how expensive December was!

Once things are set up, I add in expenses that are already paid for like our car rental and our apartment and our medical insurance. I've also already added in our flights to Tanzania, which is why you can see that our January expenses are already showing at $1,518!

It shows expenses by the day.

And it shows a total where you stand so far.

The best part is inputting expenses as you go. For example, when we go to the local market, we shop at several different stands. As we leave each stand, I input what we bought and how much it cost. It literally takes about 10 seconds to input as we go. And the best part about all of that is that it automatically does the correct foreign exchange for you. You can even change the rate from the spot rate to a set rate (for example, the rate you paid to get cash out of an ATM). So that allows you to input the price that you paid in local currency.

Here's the list from the last time we did grocery shopping.

And so, after using it for a month, I am impressed. It saves us several steps, and although the Premium version isn't necessarily what you what call "cheap", I think it's a worthwhile cost in our case. They have Premium prices that range from $1.99 for a month to somewhere around $30 for lifetime. But, when you want a good product, you sometimes have to pay for it. Having said that, the free version would do for a lot of people.

Being aware of what we spend, and keeping track of our expenses is one of the things that has allowed us to live the life that we do. 

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