If you’ve been tracking your spending for two weeks, you should have a collection of receipts and some scribbles on a notebook. Today is the day to pull them all together and add up what you’re spending on. It may not be totally scientific, but if it’s our first attempt, that is fine.

 

There’s a theory suggesting that we should spend 50% of our income on essentials (rent, utilities, transport), 30% on enjoyment (you don’t need me to tell you what that is) and save the remaining 20%.

 

Let’s look at it another way, and change the numbers slightly. In a page of your zen tracker (or any other handy piece of paper), draw a circle. It doesn’t have to be as artistic as a zen ensō, just a rough circle, and then divide it in half. Divide the right half into two again. You should now have a circle with two quarters on the right, and one half on the left.

 

Next to the top right quarter segment, write “Save”. Saving comes first, remember? Next to the bottom right quadrant, write “Enjoy”. Next to the big left half, write “Need”.

 

How does the spending you have tracked so far match to this? Ask yourself if this 25/25/50 split is ideal for you. I switched it to that because it’s easier to draw, but 5% extra savings can bring about financial freedom six years faster: worth it, I think.

 

Start using this simple chart to think about how you’re allocating your money, and if that’s where you want it to go. Let’s not just think “spending bad, saving good”, but make sure we are doing the best, the most interesting, the most valuable things with our money.

 

If you like, you can shade in a fourth section, between saved and enjoy, and label it “Waste”. That’s money spent that wasn’t essential, you didn’t enjoy much and could have been saved. If there’s any of that during the week, that’s some you can save next time instead.