Keeping track of things

When I posted my April summary, a reader asked how I kept such good track of my expenses etc.

Well to be honest, this month I've been incredibly slack with keeping track of what I'm been spending.

But in terms of what I try to do:

I keep a separate diary for keeping track of money - instead of writing appointments etc each day I write expenses/income. I keep all my receipts - I just put them in a plastic container until the end of the month.

At the end of the month I go through my receipts and check off all of them to make sure I put them in my money diary. I then go online and look at my bank statements etc to keep track of interest, bank fees, any direct debits, and will ocassionally pick something up I used EFTPOS for but didn't have a receipt.

Then I put it all into Excel and voila!

The problem is when I spend cash (usually on junk food!) that I don't keep track of. So I'm the first to admit that my monthly summaries will not always been to the cent accurate. I sometimes will put in a round figure if I remember buying something but can't remember exactly what.

I generally try to pay for things with EFTPOS, and even if I pay with cash try to get a receipt.

I have an accounting degree, in theory I should be able to reconcile everything each month so I know what is missing (or at least the amount), but I'd probably end up tearing my hair out! This way, it may not always be 100% accurate, but it's pretty close, and I'm more likely to keep doing it.