Last week when I shared my Month-to-Month Budget Tracker I received some amazing emails and comments. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I appreciate getting them! It means the world to me to know that the printables I make and share with you are being used by families all over. It truly makes my day.
Among those messages, I received a few requests/questions on how we track our spending on a day to day basis. Since remembering the exact amount you spend on Groceries, Gas, Lunches, Etc for a full 7 days requires more than just one’s memory. Unless of course, you are Sheldon Cooper in which case you can skip this post.
Since I am not at all like Sheldon Cooper those requests were just the kick in the pants I needed to finish up a Daily Tracker that I’ve been thinking about for a while now.
*Full disclosure, I did not have a daily tracker that our family was using…that was actually working for us.* So I made this handy dandy printable!
{ Daily Budget Tracker }
Download your Daily Budget Tracker HERE!
I know that this is not a groundbreaking printable, but you’ll be amazed at how helpful it will be for you!
Ours has the same categories listed as our Month-to-Month Budget Tracker.
- Groceries
- Scott Lunch
- Equinox Gas
- Sonata Gas
- Unexpected
That leaves two blank spaces for us, but that is okay.
I also have a spot for Expected Budget Busters – this is for things that we KNOW are coming up, like:
- Greyson’s 4th Birthday
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
There is also a spot for Unexpected Budget Busters. Whomp-Whomp. Last week we used this category!
- Greyson broke one of his molars! EEKK. Since he will have that tooth until he is at least 10 years old, we knew we needed to get it fixed. We went to the dentist immediately and they said they wanted to rebuild the tooth. Thankfully the tooth just broke….there was not any decay involved so they did not have to treat it as a cavity. They just needed to rebuild it. If we chose to leave the tooth as is, it would begin decay, and then we’d have major problems. Despite having dental insurance we still had to pay 87.00. Compared to what it would have been without dental insurance it was a great price HOWEVER when you have every cent budgeted you have to start shifting money in categories to prevent you from wrecking your budget for the month.
So even though that was a serious bummer it is critical to be realistic with your funds. You cannot expect to make a financial change if you are not being real with how much money you have and where you are allocating every penny!
Plus it is SO MUCH better to know right away instead of at the end of the month. At least now we have the opportunity to make changes so we don’t blow our whole budget for the month!
I printed out our Daily Budget Tracker and laminated it. That way I do not have to print this out every week. I just use one of Greyson’s Crayola markers to fill in the amount spent for each category at the end of the day. It wipes clean at the end of the week, and we start all over **AFTER filling in the Month-to-Month Budget Tracker** Make sure you do not erase this until you’ve filled that in!
Make sure you check out all of my financial printables! Just like shampoo and conditioner, they work best when used together!
- Soon-To-Be Debt Free
- Bill Pay Worksheet – DO NOT pay our bills again without this worksheet! It is a serious game changer!
- Month-to-Month Budget Tracker
Leave a Reply