Categorize Budget Items
For me it was easy to identify how much income I had each month. All of my retirement income was direct deposited in either my checking or savings accounts so all I have to do was look at my bank statement each month. Most of my monthly bills were being paid automatically each month by being charged to my credit card so I could get the frequent flyer miles. To track my expenses I just had to review six months worth of credit care statements. Now that I had this information I could begin to prepare a personal budget. The results were amazing and I learned that a large amount of my income each month went to items that did not fall neatly into a simple category.