End of Month Checklist

The end of the month is perfect time to reflect on your monthly money goals. Personally, I spend some time every weekend to review how my expenses are progressing but if that does not sound like it’s something you want to do, then simply sitting down once per month to review your money expenses will work. 

Setting some time aside each month to get a complete picture on what your finances looked like for the previous month is super important (at whatever level you want to do this at) but here I will provide an outline of my end of month steps that help me understand what my money is doing for me (or not doing). 

Step 1: Log all my expenses

I am an avid believer in a budget and have been budgeting (in one way or another) for 10+ years. I am now on the excel boat and use excel to keep a close track of my expenses. I know excel is not for everyone, and up to two years ago excel was not for me either. I borrowed and embraced the excel budget after one of my close friends showed me her excel worksheets. She is an excel queen so her excel budget sheets are beautiful. My own excel sheets are not as beautiful but they work for me and that is all I need. 

Before making the transition to excel I used an online app that helped me keep track of my expenses. Before the app, I was tracking things on paper and before I was tracking things on paper, I was loosely keeping track of my money every month. I share this progress to point out that everyone is different and in a different stage. Stick to whatever you feel comfortable with right now & be open to change in the future if you’re not ready for change now.

Step 2: Take a deeper dive into my categories

After I log all my expenses, I take a deeper dive into my categories. The benefit of using excel is that I have more freedom to create specific categories I want to track. For me this includes specific categories like “Coffee” and “Eating Out”. I don’t want to call these my problem categories but, in some way, they are because they are categories I have had problems with in the past. Each month I can reflect on how I spent my money and I love this because it allows for the possibility to learn & adapt for the next month. 

Step 3: Check my credit score

This one is pretty self-explanatory but at least once I month I look at my credit score that is provided to me through my banking services. I don’t find that checking my credit score very often is very useful and if I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing, it shouldn’t change much but I also like to check to make sure there are no surprises. I will be writing more about this in a later blog post. 

Step 4: Check my Savings & Investing Accounts

I have automated both my savings and investing accounts, but I like to look at my accounts at the end of the month to check on my progress and check for any surprises. 

Step 5: Review & payoff credit cards

I use credit cards to make all my transactions however, I never spend more than I know I can afford (one of the advantages of having a budget is that I know exactly how much I can afford). At the end of every month, I pay off balances on the credit cards that I know will be generating my statement soon. I aim to always have zero rollover when my credit card statement closes so I often make several payments on my credit cards every month (more about this in a later blog post). 

Step 7: Set up my excel for next month 

This can be automated but personally I like setting up my excel for the next month at the end of every month as it reminds me that every month is a clean slate. 

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Note: This is not financial advice. It is educational content to help you learn about one way you can take a deeper dive into your own personal finances.