I'm a personal finance reporter living in New York City. 3 tools I use to keep my spending in checkWhen it comes to actually managing my money, I do my best to take the advice my colleagues and I gather from a variety of experts and folks who've successfully accomplished goals like
As such, I use three main tools to keep an eye on my spending and work toward my financial goals. They help me stress less and feel empowered to make my day-to-day financial decisions.While I don't set and stick to a strict monthly budget, I do try to set myself up for success ahead of each month by filling out a money calendar.
For example, if I know I'm going out to dinner with a friend one week, I'll mark that on the calendar and aim to avoid other takeout or non-grocery food purchases that week to save my cash for the social outing. Planning this way helps keep my careful and carefree spending in balance.This year, I started using the spending buckets feature in my checking account to keep even better track of my money in tandem with my calendar.