I really love being a personal finance blogger, but there are some aspects of personal finance blogging that I perceive as being tiresome. These include posting weekly spending reports, monthly net worth updates, and monthly debt total updates. I sort of got around the last one by posting a text box on my blog that details my debt totals and progress; this allows me to just log into my accounts after payments have posted and change the totals in my text box. In short, I don’t have to do any actual math to keep up with my debt total updates.
However, I’ve decided to start posting weekly spending reports. For one thing, I like the accountability that PF blogging provides, and this is one more layer of accountability. For another, I’ve been really struggling to stay on budget in a couple categories (the usual suspects – groceries, eating out, clothes, etc.) for the past few months and I’d like to try to discover patterns in my overspending – assuming that any real patterns exist. At the very least, I’m hoping that I might fall victim to the Hawthorne effect; I’ll know that my spending is being “studied” (if only by myself) which will cause me to spend more cautiously.
My budget month starts over this Thursday, so that will be the beginning of my tracking. In other words, my weekly spending reports will be posted every Thursday, starting with the Thursday after this one coming up. Sound good?
Now, for another announcement: I started another blog! I’ve tried to start a second blog a couple of times before and I couldn’t quite get the momentum going. But I’m really excited about this one, so if you have a chance, please take a look at it! (If the link above fails for some reason the url is http://meredithmakeshermark.blogspot.com.)
Hope everyone is having a happy Monday 🙂
