Tracking Support

[iamdavidspersonaleconomy]

I'm going to get back into tracking. I have my home made spreadsheets from the early 2000's and it is fun and enlightening to go back and look at them, even the ones that only have January and the January 1 balances on all my accounts. I found out in black and white pixels last night that I've paid off $22K in credit cards alone this past year. One more payment and they are all at 0. I also see I've paid off $4K on my Jeep (in storage back in the US) and almost $1K on the mortgage (on house I haven't lived in for 5 years).

I tweeked the categories to more closely show my life down here for this next year, and I'll track December as a 'trial run'.

Oooh! Will you post it? I would love to see how it changes living in Honduras! I have never been to another country. Living in other country with different culture and advantagous currency exhange rate is a small dream of mine.

[shadowmoss]

Well, I will just note that the categories I pay in Limps are at a 20 to 1 (L20 to $1) conversion. I buy most of my groceries at the PX in $$ and most of the other stuff online in $$, my rent and utilities are in L and if I go to the casino (my primary sin...) it is L. Trust me, it sounds a lot more romantic than it is. I feel like my real life is back in storage in Kansas City, and I'm just putting in time here to pay off debt.

Edited to add: When I stay at the hotel in Tegucigalpla I pay with the credit card, so it is in $$ as well. Gasoline for the car is in L, but the car rental is paid in $$. Seems straightforward enough to me, but probably not to others.

[iamdavidspersonaleconomy]

Well, I will just note that the categories I pay in Limps are at a 20 to 1 (L20 to $1) conversion. I buy most of my groceries at the PX in $$ and most of the other stuff online in $$, my rent and utilities are in L and if I go to the casino (my primary sin...) it is L. Trust me, it sounds a lot more romantic than it is. I feel like my real life is back in storage in Kansas City, and I'm just putting in time here to pay off debt.

Edited to add: When I stay at the hotel in Tegucigalpla I pay with the credit card, so it is in $$ as well. Gasoline for the car is in L, but the car rental is paid in $$. Seems straightforward enough to me, but probably not to others.

So you moved there to pay off debt, then return to the US?

[shadowmoss]

Yes, living down here don't pay Federal income taxes up to a certain point, and my wages are well below that point. I can only be in the US a maximum of 35 day/year for that to work. Cost of living is somewhat lower, but mostly because there are so few options for shopping and recreation. I don't go to the clubs or drink, although I do go to a couple of casinos. There are military discounts at the 3 hotels in Teguc that are on-limits so it isn't outragously expensive to get a dose of urbanism once a month or so. I am hoping to get a job back in the US this next year, which is one reason I need to start tracking again so that I can keep my cost of living dialed back as far as possible.

Right now I pay $300/mo for a 2br 2ba apartment. No heating down here and I don't have air conditioning because I live at the base of a mountain so there is usually a breeze. My electric is arounf $25/mo and water $.35 (yes, 35 cents) a month. My car rental is $500/mo and gas is $5/gal but I don't have a lot of places to drive so I may pay around $30/week for gas. I eat 2 meals a workday at the dining facility so that is around $7/day or $35/week. I don't have a cook stove since apartments down here don't come with a stove or fridge, so I mostly keep stuff I can microwave. I live alone and I don't go wandering around alone, so I don't eat out except on some weekends when I'm in teguc.

That is mostly what I spend other than debt repayment and obligations back in the US like storage units and insurance on the house and Jeep. All pretty fixed every month. Not a lot of tracking or places to cut back. But, looking ahead to having the debt repayment money to invest and hopefully moving back to the US means I need to start tracking again.

[Aroha]

For years we wrote things down on a school notebook page as we spent it and at the end of the month I would take different colored highlighters (originally it was circling in colored pencil) to seperate the categories. Then I would add them up so we had a pretty good idea of what we were spending on.

I know this is an old thread, thank you to all who have posted here because I am looking for ideas. This low-tech approach appeals, I like the highlighter idea, I think even i could make that work.

[awakenedsoul]

I just write a list out by hand every month. I record cash purchases in my checkbook register. (I just don't deduct them.) For me, writing things down helps me to remember them. I keep each monthly sheet in the front packet of my journal. It keeps me accountable. I don't want to overspend. My goal is to live on $20,000. or less this year. So far, so good...