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5 Ways to Know You’re a Tracker and not a Budgeter

I recently decided to join a money tracking app. After manging out budget for years and being the bookkeeper in my marriage, I was curious about what a money app could teach me. I will go through a pro/con list of how to know if you are a tracker or budgeter.

First, I Love My Spreadsheets

First, I have a number of spreadsheets and they're great ay tracking numbers that I add to the spreadsheets.

I have my Excel spreadsheets with a tally of my debts and theit minimal payments.

PIC OF SNOWBALL BUDGET

I have my soreadsheet for our months income and expenses, although this is easier to ignore because I have very little income as I'm getting my business off the ground.

PIC OF 2023 BUDGET

The way that I am using Excel, I am only tracking my expenses. I created the formulas, I lock specific cells, I can make mistakes. My lists are as accurate and valuable as my accounting skillset (which is menoscule). This is a check in the Tracker column.


Second, I had the Wrong Number.

Imagine my surprise when the money app calculated my net worth and shocked me because it shows my current credit card balances as my payments and HOLY MOLY, I need to earn a lot more money immediately.

My current number is $2,836. I'm not embarrassed to share this because there us courage in discussing money, courage in writing a blog and courage in acknowledging how far behind I am. So let's get into how the dreaded (or beloved) money apps rocked my world. Pro for using the money apps.

By the way, my number was wrong. I do not need to make $2,836 to cover my expenses and the kiddo's school. I have overspent (on average) by a thousand dollars every month. Oops. I need to earn $3,909 a month to keep my life afloat and I did not know that. I had never looked at the average expenses I made wvery month or reviewed what my expenses looked like compared to my income. I want to say thay I've fallen off but the truth is that when I was working, I was just paying off bills and applying extra income to whatever bill I wanted. This is a check in the Tracker column.



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