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Looking at Your Spending and Debt
Expenses Line by Line
By this point, you should have gathered some information about your expenses. If you've kept an expense record, tally up weekly and monthly figures. If you haven't kept an expense record, get out your checkbook and any receipts you can find. Walk around the house to see what you've bought recently. SUGGESTION: Try to find some old credit card bills. Keep track of your cash outflow for a few weeks to see how you are spending your money. The more details you have, the more you know. The more you know, the better your decisions will be. Think about expenses that don't occur regularly, like car repairs, and items that you pay only once or twice a year, like homeowner's insurance. Take a look at your checkbook to see if the amounts look right. Then put all that information into the "Cash Flow" worksheet. It is called a "'cash flow" because it shows how money flows in and out of your life. You don't have to do a whole year; try a few months and see if a pattern develops. Your expenses are subtracted from your take-home pay to determine your cash balance. This amount may be negative. Don't worry about that yet; it just means you have some work to do. We use the following categories for expenses. You can change them if you'd like. Think of the chart as a suggestion. We're trying to give you a feel for the kinds of categories you'll need if you're going to take a hard look at things. These definitions will help you complete the "Cash Flow" worksheet.
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