Weathering a Storm

As we learned in this lesson, crises can happen. The best time to prepare for a crisis is before one happens because you are not under the strain and emotional stress that crises bring. Tracking how you are using the money God has entrusted you with is a great way to prepare for future challenges, and gives you a solid grasp of your current finances.

The Tracking Tool is designed to help you record your income and expenses over thirty days.

Step One — Capture

Make sure to save any receipts and expenses over the next 30 days and enter them into the Tracking Tool each day. You can’t get the data you need without tracking everything that comes in and everything that goes out.

Step Two — Categorize

Each transaction has a category. Anytime you receive any type of income, put that number in the income category. Any time you give, save or spend, put that number in the appropriate category. When entering an amount in the spend category, make sure you write down what you spent the money on.

Step Three — Change

The goal at the end of the month is to have a zero balance in the “Money Remaining” box. This means that every dollar you receive will fall into a category.

As you are tracking over the next 30 days, be sure to review your goals (from chapter four) and see if your spending is aligned with your goals. If not, make adjustments in your spending to try and meet those goals.

Why am I doing this?

There are thousands of budgeting tools and programs in existence — envelope systems, banking tools, software programs, excel spreadsheets and mobile apps — do you know what they all have in common? Tracking! In some way, shape, or form they all incorporate tracking. It is the key to any budgeting tool, and we want to make sure you know how to track effectively.

Download the Tracking Tool Worksheet (PDF)

As we learned in this lesson, crises can happen. The best time to prepare for a crisis is before one happens because you are not under the strain and emotional stress that crises bring. Tracking how you are using the money God has entrusted you with is a great way to prepare for future challenges, and gives you a solid grasp of your current finances.

The Tracking Tool is designed to help you record your income and expenses over thirty days, gauge your progress as it relates to your goals, and to make changes or adjustments as you track.

Getting Started

Make sure you enter the totals from your Estimated Spending Plan into the Estimated Plan sections of the Tracking Tool. This number will be your target for your expenses from each category. Once you’ve done this, it’s time to implement the three Cs of tracking!

Step One — Capture

Make sure to save any receipts and expenses over the next 30 days and enter them into the Tracking Tool each day. You can’t get the data you need without tracking everything that comes in and everything that goes out.

Step Two — Categorize

Each transaction has a category (food, clothing, auto, transportation, etc.) The tracking tool is designed with one column for income and 12 columns for spending categories. If you aren’t sure about where to put a transaction, review the estimated spending plan and choose a category that makes the most sense to you.

Step Three — Change

Change is constant. Bills can go up and down each month, and you never know when you might have an unexpected expense. The bottom line is that if there is more going out than coming in, something needs to change. The Tracking Tool is designed to make you aware of those discrepancies and to adjust as you see them happening. This may mean looking for ways to delete an expense, lower an expense, or provide more income so that you can meet your category targets.

Why am I doing this?

There are thousands of budgeting tools and programs in existence — envelope systems, banking tools, software programs, excel spreadsheets and mobile apps — do you know what they all have in common? Tracking! In some way, shape, or form they all incorporate tracking. It is the key to any
budgeting tool, and we want to make sure you know how to track effectively.

Download the Level 2 Tracking Tool Worksheet (PDF) | Example (PDF)