Due to popular request, Emma Kate Co designed an Expense Passport. It's the perfect little tracker-to-go, that slots easily into the back pocket of your planner, to keep on top of your incomings and outgoings. She’s your passport to forming better money habits.
FEATURES:
Sections for recording:
- One-time, fixed expenses; such as rent/mortgage, bills & repayments
- Recurring or variable expenses; such as groceries, eating out & membership payments
- Your savings goals
- Plus other special expenses for the month; such as you daily coffees, birthday gifts, that new bag you’ve been eyeing off or a last minute flight to somewhere new … only after you’ve covered all the essentials, of course.
- There's also detailed line-item expense tracking, for focussing on certain areas of spending where you feel a little bit out of control
- And a space at the end of each month for summarising and reflecting on where you’ve spent your money, and how you could be a little smarter next month!
Please note, this tracker is for 6 months only - this was to keep is extremely small and light, so that it was easy to take with you in the back pocket of a planner. If you want to track for 12 months, please purchase two trackers OR start with one + see if the layout works well for you, without committing to a full 12 months.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- 28 pages | 14 sheets
- 105mm wide x 142mm tall x 2mm thick
- Fits seamlessly into the back pocket of any planner
- Under 80 grams, perfect for carrying with you
- 6 monthly sections
- Lay-flat bookbinding [no need to prop or coax open]
- 120gsm beautiful quality, kind-to-the-planet, off-white paper [FSC certified]
- Designed in Melbourne, made with love and care by socially compliant manufacturing partners in Shenzhen, China
TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TRACKER:
- Fill in any known fixed expenses from the get-go: mortgage/rent, car payments/registration, insurance payments, phone bill, monthly membership payments, etc.
- Fill in any large savings goals ahead of time, too.
- Record any known special expenses for the relevant months, such as significant birthdays, planned holidays, etc.
- At the start of each month, fill in any other bills - such as electricity/gas, water, card payments, etc. - and their due dates.
- Budget for recurring and variable expenses - such as weekly allowances for groceries, eating out, gym/fitness weekly payments, doctor/dental/physio appointments.
- Set aside how much you want to allocate to each savings goal - treat this as an expense, not an afterthought or "whatever I have left at the end of the month", otherwise you'll never prioritise putting money towards your goal.
- Calculate how much you'll have left, once all your necessary outgoing are accounted for
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Then you can plan how you will spend what's left, knowing that your essentials are already taken care of.
- Our every little detail line item expense tracker wasn't designed for every single transaction you make each month, but rather as a way to focus on a handful of categories where you feel a little out of control.
- EG - if you go to the supermarket 2-4 time a week, or shop at a market or collection of specialty shops, you may make lots of little transactions and not even realise exactly how much you spend on groceries. Record every transaction here, then add them up for a clear picture of how you spend
- OR - maybe you love to treat yourself to a coffee or two [or three], and the odd cocktail here or there, and have never considered how all these 'small' purchases add up. Use the every little detail section to record all of these purchases.
- At the end of the month, using your banking app and/or the every little detail section, summarise your key areas of spending vs how you budgeted for these. If you were over budget, or are just trying to reduce spending, go through each line item and tally how many transactions were truely 'unnecessary' (EG, maybe the 3rd coffee of a day wasn't really needed...)
- If you keep going over budget, but can't find any unnecessary spending, this might be a sign that you need to reevaluate you expectations and adjust for budget accordingly (EG you budget $90 per week for groceries, but consistently spend $120, and rarely waste much... consider adjusting your budget to being $120)
- At the end of each month, take time to reflect on your spending, how you felt during the month, and how you felt looking back at it. Use the self-reflection to adjust your approach + attitude towards money and spending for the next month.
