A self-professed “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of gal, I often shun routines in my everyday life. Except for two things:  breakfast and finances. I love me some tasty oatmeal w/ blueberries and a cup of Sweet Dreams tea (yep, I drink “sleepy” tea to wake up in the morning–I’ve never had coffee in my life!!).  But I love my Excel spreadsheets even more.

It’s obvious that a lot has been written on budgets, tracking spending, getting out of debt, etc. What I’ve personally found lacking is information on how people really do these things.

Of course you can do a quick Google search that will yield a plethora of ‘I got out of debt by doing X, Y, and Z” links, but how many of those links actually tell you what the person has done in detail? I know to cut my expenses, track my spending, bring in more income, etc, etc, etc.

But HOW do you do that?

My answer is to have a routine. Merriam Webster defines routine as “habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure.” There aren’t many areas in life other than finances where I’d insist that performing an established procedure must be habitual. Simply stated, if you don’t consistently manage your money, are you really in control of it?

My routine is simple, yet has many steps:

1. Each month, I set monthly goals and a budget based on previous spending patterns, anticipated income, and life events (ie. do I have a wedding to attend or a vacation coming up?)
2. I track every penny I spend and these totals are entered into my Excel spreadsheet’s various tabs: a separate budget tab for each month and miscellaneous spending tabs for every two months so I get a better sense of spending trends over time
3. My miscellaneous spending is broken up into categories such as restaurants, groceries, gas, pet expenses, condo reno expenses, etc. and the sheet is auto-formatted to keep running totals and tell me how much I have left to spend (like what Mint.com does–I also love me some formulas and macros)
4. I keep all receipts and on Mondays and Fridays, I match them to my credit card statement to make sure I was charged correctly, then I enter the totals in my spreadsheets & throw away any receipts I don’t need to save for warranties, etc.
5. If I pay with cash, I write those expenditures down on a small notepad–if I take $40 out of my account, I don’t just record $40; I continue to track each individual expense so I still know how I’m spending my money
6. On the 25th of each month, I calculate my Net Worth, update my mortgage tabs (keeps track of balances, payment amounts and equity), update my savings tabs (EF, LT savings, Roth IRA, 403b), and update my student loan debt tab (it lists each loan balance, interest rate, and the date of each payment)

I’ll be the first one to admit that this may seem a bit overwhelming and tedious. But as a reformed spendaholic, I know myself well enough to know that I need to keep tabs (pun intended!) on myself in order to maintain the financial stability I’ve fought so hard to establish.

The best part of doing this for the past 5 years is that it’s automatic and now something I look forward to doing. My Monday/Friday updates take about 10 minutes and my 25th of the month showdowns a mere 25. To me, those 45 minutes each week are completely worth it.

An added advantage of my routine is that in establishing and keeping up with it, I’ve developed some pretty sweet financial habits. My routine has effectively set the stage for a healthy financial awareness as well as an increased desire to pay off debt, bring in extra income, enjoy my money, and save for my future. Not bad for 45 minutes a week, eh?

Do you have a financial routine? If so, what is it?