keep track of each penny I spend

I’m learning double-entry bookkeeping with GnuCash. It’s not too difficult, but as always forming the concepts takes time and concentration.

I’ve installed GnuCash on my computer. It seems to be a bit simpler than TurboCASH, more suitable for personal finance. It also comes with a nice tutorial.

Last night I did another bit of paperwork on this. Tonight I might catch up!

The rising cost of fuel is making this imperative, I realized suddenly.

I’m making progress here. Slowly I’m getting control over the paperwork, and getting the data together in one place.

Um, OK, maybe I need to pay some attention to this. I have paperwork going back to Decemeber that has not been attended to. (I did start once.)

Perhaps, with more money coming in soon, I will not be so scared to look at the situation.

I could do it in a spreadsheet, but it seems too much of a hurdle to actually implement it (and perhaps more effort than I can afford to spend on it.) But I found Metalogic Finance Explorer, and it seems that it would do the job for me. It’s very simple, and if I pay attention, I might start understanding the principles of accounting. :-)

I’m renaming this goal (from make a budget) to be much stricter. I should not just plan how to spend and earn the money, I should also know how close I get to the planning.

It suddenly occured to me that I might still have my “keeping track of my expenses” spreadsheet. I looked, and I found it!

Some years ago I had a system in which I kept track of all my expenses. Not perfectly, but I had a good idea where the money went. I think I want to try to do that again. I am a bit scared of the commitment.

I’ve installed OpenOffice on my computer, so now I should be able to see my budget here, once I’ve copied it.