Tracking your Dollars in the Digital Age

By Kate Vaillancourt, Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor (CCUFC)

When I was little — maybe seven years old, my parents decided to join my aunt, uncle and cousin on a cross-country adventure to visit family in California. Despite my tender age, I remember it quite well, as my brother, cousin and I were able to roam free in the back of the van (no seatbelt laws back then), and at the end of the day, we usually stayed at a motel with a pool. Seven-year-old me thought that was the best vacation EVER! We also stopped at a lot of low-cost tourist attractions and ate a lot of bologna sandwiches — at least that’s what I remember. Reality may have been different, but one thing I know for sure is that my mom wrote every expense down. Every. Single. Penny. When we got home, she typed it out and kept the detailed list in the back of the photo album with all the wonderful memories of that summer trip.

While I’m going down memory lane, you may be wondering where “The Challenge” comes in. Well, I’m enlisting you to join the “Keep Track of Your Spending like Kate’s Mom Challenge.” For the next two weeks, write it all down. Find a notepad and pencil or open up a new note or text document on your phone and keep track of every penny that leaves your possession, whether it’s in cash or a transaction on your debit or credit card. Pay a bill, write it down. Get a soda at the gas station, write it down. A quarter in the gum ball machine — you get the idea. Hopefully at the end of the challenge, you will have a good idea of where you money is going and possible identify areas that need change.

For example, I am really horrible at planning to pack a lunch for work, so I end up getting A LOT of take-out. Is it the end of the world? Probably not, but if I packed my lunch one extra day per week, that’s roughly $12 that I wouldn’t be spending that day, saving me about $624 over the course of the year. That $624 might be an extra car payment or some cushion for my next vacation; it might come close to filling my heating oil tank or give me something to draw from if I have an emergency. When I go down the rabbit hole into what this costs throughout the year, buying lunch out every day is about $60 a week or $3,120 per year. Yikes! What could I do with an extra $3,120? A LOT! It’s unlikely that I’ll actually bring lunch from home every day no matter how determined I am, but knowing that it’s actually possible might be incentive enough for me to do better.

Even if you don’t want to take the challenge, I would urge you to take some time to go over your account and credit card statements. Maybe there are subscriptions you don’t need or maybe you don’t know how much you spend on fancy coffees each month. I’m not against the “extras” in life — it’s OK to get the fancy coffee unless it’s causing you to live outside of your means or gets in the way of your financial goals. I won’t scold myself for getting a cake pop at the fancy coffee shop that just opened up next door,  but I might pause and ask myself if I would rather have that money in my savings account instead. When you start to add things up, you might see that the small amounts spent every day can add up to big amounts at the end of the month — amounts that can help pay down debt or be put away for something better.

If you’d like more personalized help with this challenge or would like help with your finances, please reach out to me by sending an email to kvaillancourt@acadiafcu.org or by calling 207-992-1060. Financial counseling services are free to members of Acadia Federal Credit Union.

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July 17, 2024