Not a long post for my 100th, but I wanted to give a quick update that my stimulus payment came in the mail today and I’ve already deposited it in my account. As soon as it clears it’s going towards credit card debt.

Woo Hoo!

In all the reading I’ve done on personal finance and debt management, there is one rule or suggestion that makes me cringe every time I read it. That rule is simply, “keep track of what you spend”.

There are a few reasons why this is painful to me. One – I’m afraid to know. Two – I don’t want to be that anal about my spending. And three – it takes the fun out of money.

But after some consideration and the release of my holiday binge credit card statement that I mentioned in my last post (final total exceeded $400), I’ve decided that this step is a necessary evil.

My hope really is to keep track as a means of ensuring that I really need something – hopefully impulse purchases will be few and far between if I have to consult the “little black book” each time.

And speaking of impulse purchases, I’m using a former purchase of that nature to follow through with this task. After reading a post on The Simple Dollar, I’ve decided to use my moleskin notebook in a slightly different way.

Each payday I will create a header titled Pay Period month/day – month/day. Each purchase I make – I will write a description and subtract that from my paycheck/checking account balance.

Hopefully, this way, I’ll be able to see where my money goes.