For a while I just wrote down every single expense in an Excel sheet. I didn't bother with doing any kind of analysis on the data. Just the act of writing thing

For a while I just wrote down every single expense in an Excel sheet. I didn't bother with doing any kind of analysis on the data. Just the act of writing things down and was incredibly enlightning. It made me look at all the expenses I had, confronted me with silly little purchases like a chocolate bar (that's another annoying cell in the spreadsheet) and highlighted days where I spent no money at all. You can do it without quantifying your life or submitting to a stifling plan.