Most people could make some improvements in the way they manage their money. You should all want to make the most of your money to allow you to make more choices. Instead, it is far too common for people to be stressed about money which can cause more issues.

Even if it’s just switching car insurance providers or internet services.

We’re used to shopping around for better deals on those things but still tend to let money largely look after itself once the direct debit is set up.

We’re not taught much about how money works, either in school or beyond.

Plenty of people, for instance, would be hard pushed to explain how compound interest works.

The good news is, you don’t have to know about that stuff to get a better grip on everyday expenses – although it helps because if you have a running balance on your credit card, you’re almost certainly paying it. 

Below is a very easy money tracking system that anyone can start using today.

True, it won’t teach you about complicated interest calculations, but it will teach you how to monitor daily spending and take more control.

Make The Most Of Your Money

Log Your Expenses

When you’re in business, accounting is a vital part of routine tasks. Done right it can even help improve your profits and reduce costs, particularly with expert advice from a professional tax accountant.

Taking a leaf out of business books can help with all forms of money management. By incorporating expert VAT advice into your approach, you can simplify tax compliance and highlight potential savings.

With an easy tracking system, you can know exactly where you stand financially all the time, and this in turn helps you budget, plan and save.

With four columns on a notebook page or spreadsheet, give them the headers ‘Date’, ‘Item’, ‘Cost’, ‘Balance’, then fill them in like this:

• Date: When the transaction took place.
• Item: What it was you paid for, or in the case of income, where money came from which might be sales, wages, salary or various other forms of income such as returns on investments.
• Cost: How much you spent or earned.
• Balance: The ‘cost’ figure either added or subtracted from your existing balance to reflect the new transaction.

Don’t forget to add automatic transactions that your bank takes care of, like direct debits or standing orders.

Without them, your tracker won’t be accurate and might give you a false sense of security if you think you have more funds available than are actually there.

How often you fill in the information is up to you as long as you do it regularly, so income or purchases aren’t forgotten.

Start a new page at least every month.

If you have a lot of transactions, you could have a new page each week, but most people go from month to month as that’s how salaries normally come in.

For most general purposes, this ultra-simple system will do the job, but there are many circumstances when it doesn’t go far enough.

If your financial circumstances mean you complete an annual tax return, for instance if you have additional income on top of a regular salary, you might find it beneficial to get some professional advice.

Control Your Finances

There’s a wealth of information hidden in your accumulated income and expenses records. And you can use that info to finesse your finances and make money go further.

Look back through the entries you’ve made and pick a category of spending.

It could be leisure or entertainment, motoring, groceries, utilities, phone. Tot up all the entries listed for that category, and if the amount surprises you, that’s a strong clue you could do something different.

Maybe shop around for a better deal or make a conscious decision to cut down the frequency of those purchases.

We tend to think we’ve got a fairly good idea of where and how much money we’re spending on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but it’s not always true.

When you make lots of small purchases, they’re easily forgotten. If you find you forget having bought something, ask for a receipt if you’re not offered one so you have the paper reminder when you get home.

If you ever find yourself counting pennies in the days running up to payday, using this tracker will definitely help you keep a better hold on money.

And that means you get more choice over where to spend it, and even start saving more if that’s something you struggle with.

*Accounting Tips To Make The Most Of Your Money is a collaborative post