Appendix A

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Effective short-term money management and long-term financial security depend on spending less than you take in. The use of a Daily Spending Diary will provide information to better understand your spending patterns and to help you achieve financial goals.

The following sheets should be used to record every cent of your spending each day in the categories provided. You can indicate the use of a credit card with (CR). Or you can create your own format to monitor your spending. Various apps (see below) are also available for this purpose.

This experience will help you understand your spending habits and identify desired changes you might want to make. Your comments should reflect what you have learned about your spending and can assist with changes you might want to make. Ask yourself, “What spending amounts can I reduce or eliminate?”

Many people who take on this task find it difficult at first and may consider it a waste of time. However, nearly everyone who makes a serious effort to keep a Daily Spending Diary has found it beneficial. The process may seem tedious at first, but after a while, recording this information becomes easier and faster. Most important, you will know where your money is going. Then you will be able to better decide if that is truly how you want to spend your available financial resources. A sincere effort with this activity will result in very beneficial information for monitoring and controlling your spending. At the end of each chapter, questions are provided to guide your daily spending related to the topic of the chapter.

Using a Daily Spending Diary can help to:

reveal hidden spending habits so you can better save for the future.
create and achieve financial goals.
revise buying habits and reduce wasteful spending.
control credit card purchases.
improve record-keeping for measuring your financial progress and filing your taxes.
plan for major expenditures encountered during the year.
start an investment program with the money you save through controlled spending.

The following Daily Spending Diary sheets are also available in an Excel format in Connect Finance.