{"id":40144,"date":"2021-06-21T18:17:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T22:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=40144"},"modified":"2021-07-04T18:20:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T22:20:07","slug":"analyze-expenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyze Expenses With This Alternative to Budgeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you have an effective system to analyze expenses? Did you know that there is a budget alternative for managing your spending?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/money-or-your-life\/\">Your Money or Your Life<\/a><\/em>, Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez show how to use a tabulation system to analyze expenses. It serves as a budget alternative, avoiding two pitfalls of budgets. Ultimately, it provides a more holistic view of your spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to understand this effective way to analyze expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Analyze Expenses With Monthly Tabulation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To analyze expenses with monthly tabulation, you will develop different spending categories for what you spend money on. Next, you will create a way of tabulating your monthly spending and sort your expenses for the month into each of your categories. Lastly, you\u2019ll use your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/track-your-money\/\">real hourly wage<\/a> to calculate how much life energy you spent in each category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Is This Different From a Budget?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Some finance programs have you make a budget to help you analyze expenses and plan how to spend your money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This program avoids two pitfalls of budgets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They aren\u2019t detailed enough to capture your unique spending habits. Developing your own spending categories will help you get a more accurate picture of your spending patterns.&nbsp;<\/li><li>They don\u2019t encourage you to reflect on your spending. With a monthly tabulation, you\u2019ll gain a clearer picture of your spending and evaluate whether or not it\u2019s worth it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With a tabulation system, you don&#8217;t just track expenses; you <em>analyze<\/em> expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Analyze Expenses by Categorizing Them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Develop Your Categories and Subcategories<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>First, develop spending categories and subcategories that capture what you spend money on each month. For example, let\u2019s say one of your spending categories is \u201cFood.\u201d If you realize that you\u2019re frequently buying vending machine snacks in your office building, include \u201cvending machine snacks\u201d as a subcategory of \u201cFood.\u201d <strong>Find a balance between capturing more detail than the broad category, but not driving yourself crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some potential categories and subcategories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Food<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Food for home eating<\/li><li>Food for sharing with guests<\/li><li>Restaurant visits&nbsp;<\/li><li>Snacks<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Housing<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Rent or Mortgage<\/li><li>Utilities<\/li><li>Renter\u2019s insurance<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clothing<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Leisure<\/li><li>Work<\/li><li>Athletic<\/li><li>Shoes<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Pro-tip: consider subcategories that reflect emotional reasons for spending, like buying clothes to make yourself feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transportation<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Car<\/li><li>Public Transit<\/li><li>Ride Shares<\/li><li>Auto Insurance<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Electronics and Tech<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cell phone<\/li><li>Internet<\/li><li>Wearables (ie. a smartwatch)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For Fun<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Television\/Movie streaming services<\/li><li>Music streaming services<\/li><li>News subscriptions<\/li><li>Alcohol from bars<\/li><li>Movies<\/li><li>Kids\u2019 entertainment<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Health<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Gym Membership<\/li><li>Vitamins<\/li><li>Prescription drugs<\/li><li>Nonprescription drugs<\/li><li>Health Insurance<\/li><li>Doctor\u2019s visits<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unexpected Expenses<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>There are often large, unexpected expenses that occur each month. Examples include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Car repair payments<\/li><li>Once-a-year insurance expenses<\/li><li>Paying down a chunk of your house<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not <em>all<\/em> unexpected expenses come up each month, but usually one will. Choose a strategy to account for these. You have two options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Put unexpected expenses in whichever subcategory they fall in.<\/strong> Over time, you\u2019ll build a sense of how much you spend on unexpected expenses each month, regardless of category, and learn to have money on hand to deal with them.<\/li><li><strong>Prorate expenses that you pay once per year across 12 months.<\/strong> If you pay $600 for homeowners insurance once a year, divide that by twelve and include the monthly figure in your expenses each month.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Miscellaneous Categories and Considerations<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the above, make a small table that includes each of your income streams. Eventually, this will include interest from Investment Income (discussed in Chapters 8 and 9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also make sure that you separate business and personal expenses. For example, what percentage of your time using your phone goes toward work versus personal use? Split the cost accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Create Your Tabulation System<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>List the categories you\u2019ve created in a spreadsheet or similar tool. You\u2019ll use this to sort your monthly expenses into your categories and subcategories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The table below shows one way to set it up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>Expenses<\/td><td>Total Dollars<\/td><td>Life Energy<\/td><td>1.<\/td><td>2.<\/td><td>3.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong><em>Clothing<\/em><\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Leisure<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Work<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Athletic<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Shoes<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong><em>For Fun<\/em><\/strong><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Streaming services<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>News Subscriptions<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Movies<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>etc.<\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>Income<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Loans<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Tips and\/or Bonuses<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Interest<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Paychecks<\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) Total spent ________<br>(2) Total income ________<br>(2)-(1) Savings ________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Don\u2019t worry about the blank columns for now. You use them in Step 4 of the <em>Your Money or Your Life<\/em> system.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once your system is in place, follow these steps to understand your spending for the month:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Place each transaction in its appropriate subcategory.<\/li><li>Total the transactions in each subcategory, category, and overall.<\/li><li>Count any cash you have leftover, and note the balance of your bank accounts.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Calculate your savings for the month:<ol><li>(Income- Total Expenses) +\/- error<\/li><li>Error is any unaccounted for money you have, lost or gained.<\/li><\/ol><\/li><li>For each subcategory, calculate the hours of life energy you spent by dividing the total by your real hourly wage.<ol><li>Example: $80 on magazines divided by $8.42 = 9.5 hours of life energy<\/li><li>Assess: are the hours of life energy that you expended to make that purchase worth it?<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>When you analyze expenses with this budget alternative, you have a much clearer picture of your spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you have an effective system to analyze expenses? Did you know that there is a budget alternative for managing your spending? In Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez show how to use a tabulation system to analyze expenses. It serves as a budget alternative, avoiding two pitfalls of budgets. Ultimately, it provides a more holistic view of your spending. Read more to understand this effective way to analyze expenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":40155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,25],"tags":[396],"class_list":["post-40144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money","category-statistics","tag-your-money-or-your-life","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Analyze Expenses With This Alternative to Budgeting - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Analyze expenses with a tabulation system\u2014a budget alternative that avoids pitfalls and provides a more holistic view of your spending.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Analyze Expenses With This Alternative to Budgeting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Analyze expenses with a tabulation system\u2014a budget alternative that avoids pitfalls and provides a more holistic view of your spending.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-21T22:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-04T22:20:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/analyze-expenses.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"265\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"Analyze Expenses With This Alternative to Budgeting\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-21T22:17:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-04T22:20:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\"},\"wordCount\":844,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/analyze-expenses.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Your Money or Your Life\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Money\",\"Statistics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analyze-expenses\/\",\"name\":\"Analyze Expenses With This Alternative to Budgeting - 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