It is a simple tip. On the face of it too simple.

All you do is record what you spend your money on. Common sense, right? But how many people do you know who actually do it? Exactly.

The secret is to record every single transaction, cash or card, down to the penny.

Now he did this the hard way. He used one of those little black leather bound notebooks, like a moleskine but probably not a name brand.

We have the ability to go one better and use a spreadsheet. Either use Google docs, your smart phone or take notes and or my favorite, collate back home using the awesome Microsoft Excel (I blog about Microsoft Excel productivity here).

Doing this gives you these immediate benefits:

1. You spend your money more conciously – you actually take notice of when you are spending
2. Impusle purchases dissapear as you make yourself accountable for each purchae
3. You can see where your money is going and trim the waste
4. Your outgoings add up automatically so you can see how much money you have left over
5. When you spot waste you can shift budget toward paying down debt or savings

Try it for a month and see how well it works for you!