One of the easiest ways that I have found to fix your spending woes is to track your transactions. People often get fixated on tracking their money, but I have found that the habit of the transaction, itself, is the problem. I would like to take you through my last week’s spending.

Last Sunday: Trader Joes (Groceries) $62

Last Monday: CVS (Toilet Paper) $7

Last Thursday: Shell (Gas) $28

Last Friday: Marathon (Gas for wife) $24

That’s it. Four transactions. I did this on purpose. I did this to learn a few things about the habit of spending. The average person has around 22 financial transactions per week. The amounts of money spent varies, but the number of transactions is pretty consistent. I used to have a tremendous amount of weekly transactions, but justified it by making the transactions very small. But what I didn’t realize was that I was becoming numb to the transaction, itself. Therefore, I rarely hesitated when the costs of the transactions started to creep up.

Two incredible things happened when I started tracking transactions. While I thought I would end up spending the exact same amount of money (or more) by simply reducing transactions, I actually spent considerably less. I figured that I would simply “stock-up” on things, thus increasing the cost of each transaction, but the “stock-up” costs were minimal. 

The other thing that happened during my experiment was that the smaller (dollar amount) transactions hurt worse than the bigger transactions. My $62 trip to Trader Joes was acceptable to me, but the fact that I had to go spend $7 on toilet paper put me in a crappy mood. I learned that tracking transactions will reduce the needless transactions.

Try to reduce to your number of transactions this week to below 10. It’s more challenging than you think, but it may be the best tool for reducing ridiculous spending.

 

About Green Candyâ„¢

Green Candy™ (www.GreenCandy.com) is an online financial assessment tool that helps Gen Y-ers and Millennials get on the right financial track before the “debt hits the fan.”  Introduced by radio personality, comedian and financial expert Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com), Green Candy’s ™ various “pods” allow users to assess their financial health and competency in common areas such as Debt, Budgeting, Investing, Charity, Risk Management and Major Purchases, as well as in areas unique to Gen Y. A subsequent series of targeted worksheets, podcasts, tip sheets, and action plans guides them to the financial promise land.  Green Candy™: Get in control before the debt hits the fan.   

About Pete the Planner

Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com) is expert financial planner Peter Dunn’s super-saving alter ego.  Peter is an award-winning comedian and rising star in the financial world. Named one of “Indy’s Best and Brightest” in finance in 2007 by KPMG, Peter was also declared one of NUVO magazine’s “30 under 30 to Watch in the Arts” for comedy.  Peter is the author of What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting (2006) and is the host of the popular radio show Skills Your Dad Never Taught You on News Talk 1430 (WXNT). He blogs regularly at www.petetheplanner.com/blog.