how do you figure out how much you spend?

Your larger expenses like rent, car payment, and cell phone bill should stay the same each month. But smaller expenditures for things like groceries, dry cleaning, or going to movies, bars, or restaurants—vary from month to month. Those are the ones you have to watch out for. They’re the budget killers, and you need to account for them down to the penny. Read that again: down to the penny. But don’t worry tracking your expenses is easy, I promise.

Here are three simple ways to do it:

1. Keep Your Receipts: Every time you make a purchase stick the receipt in your wallet, and then throw it in a shoe box or a drawer when you get home. At the end of every month take an hour and tally up all the receipts and categorize the expenditures (more on this in a minute).

This is an effective yet old-fashioned way to track the money you spend. I’m not a big fan of this method. I’ve tried it, but keeping all your receipts requires a ton of self-discipline. This approach is best if you’re very anal and organized (you know who you are!).

2. Use Your Debit or Credit Card Statements: If you use a debit card or credit card to make purchases, a list of your expenditures will be sent to you in the mail or will be made accessible online via your monthly statements. It’s so easy to track them this way. The statement adds up all the purchases made over a thirty-day period, so you don’t even have to pull out a calculator. All the work is done for you.

A word to the wise: don’t rely on a credit card unless you have the cash on hand to back up each purchase. You’ll get into debt if you can’t pay off the balance in full each month, which is something we all want to avoid.

3. Use Your Smartphone: The third and most tech-savvy way to track your spending is to use an app on your smartphone. The free iPhone and Android app ABUKAI allows users to take a picture of their receipt after making a purchase in a store. The app stores this data, allowing you to easily track your spending and tally up your expenditures. Crazy simple, right?

It doesn’t matter which of these methods you use in fact, you might use a combination of the three, especially if you’re going back and forth between using cash and a card. As long as you’re consistent about tracking your spending, you’ll be able to create a budget without a problem.

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