Alright, let’s talk about this whole “how much money lol” thing. It started pretty simply, actually. I was just sitting there one evening, looking over some old project notes, and it hit me – I really had no solid clue, like, down to the penny, what was coming in versus going out over the last, say, six months.
So, I decided to get my hands dirty. First thing, I pulled up all my bank statements online. Man, that was a click-fest. Different accounts, credit cards, the whole shebang. I dumped everything into a basic spreadsheet. Didn’t use any fancy software, just rows and columns.
Sorting Through the Mess
Then came the fun part. Going line by line. Seriously. I had transaction descriptions like “POS DEBIT W/ TIP” or “ONLINE PAYMENT THANK YOU”. Super helpful, right? I had to wrack my brain trying to remember what half that stuff was for.
- Coffee here, lunch there.
- That weird subscription I forgot to cancel.
- Random small deposits from selling some old gear.
- Bills, obviously. Those were easy, at least.
I spent a good few hours just categorizing. Putting stuff into buckets like ‘Food’, ‘Utilities’, ‘Random Junk I Bought Online’, ‘Actual Income’. It felt like detective work, honestly. I found a couple of charges I didn’t recognize at first, had to dig into those. Turned out okay, just poorly labeled stuff.
Adding It All Up
Once I had everything sorted, more or less, I started running the totals. Income side first. That wasn’t too bad, mostly regular paychecks plus a couple of small side things I do occasionally. Then the expenses. Whoa.
Seeing the total outflow number staring back at me… that’s where the “lol” comes in. Not like a funny “haha” laugh, more like a slightly shocked, slightly amused, “wow, really?” kind of laugh. You think you have a handle on it, but seeing the raw number for six months of accumulated small purchases and bills is… something else.
It wasn’t a disaster, you know. Nothing alarming. But it was definitely more than my mental guesstimate. All those little things, they really do add up. The convenience fees, the ‘just one more thing’ adds to the online cart, the coffees because I was too lazy to make one at home.
So, yeah. That was my practice. Download, sort, categorize, add up, and then stare at the final number with a bit of wry amusement. It gave me a much clearer picture, which was the goal. Definitely makes you think twice before the next impulse buy. Or at least, it makes me think twice. Mostly. Lol.
