The real nitty gritty of personal finance is dull and tedious. When it comes down to it if you don't actually track what you spend then you will probably be left wondering where all your money went at the end of the month.

One of the benefits of dutifully tracking your spending is that it can lead to some shocking surprises. For example I made 14 trips to the burger stand in the last month. Did I need to make that many trips? I'm sure my wallet and waistline both would appreciate a change in my habits, but I never would have realized how bad it was unless I had been keeping tabs on my spending. I would have had a feeling that I was eating a few more cheeseburgers than I should, but when presented with a cold hard number it is a lot easier to decide to make a change.

Everyone needs to find a balance and figure out a system that works best for them. My sister swears by her excel spreadsheet. She keeps every single receipt and then enters them manually to track her spending. That is not the system for me. I use a spreadsheet, but I prefer to export my data once a month out of TDECU's Online Banking System and then sort out what I've spent and see where I can improve.

This is a great place to start when thinking about putting together a personal finance spreadsheet. Most of the work goes into setting up the initial one, but once that work is done mainting is fairly easy. If you aren't up for such a high-tech solution you could try what out our Young & Free Texas Spokesperson, Josh Garrett, does. He writes down all of his spending and does the math by hand in a notebook.

Or, if you're not up for trying to figure out exactly where all of your money is going, but do want to set limits figure out broad categories for your budget and live off of the envelope system. Each payday withdraw the money that you need and place it in corresponding envelopes (Fast Food, Entertainment, Etc) and then once the envelope is empty you're out of luck until next month. This will help you keep from reaching for the debit card when you know that you shouldn't. Another thing that can put a stop to impulse buys is the $50 rule, and you can read about that here.

Everything listed about are just ideas, and places to start, but unless you actually sit down and do it nothing will happen. Are there any other unique ways for budgeting or tracking your spending that you use? Let us know!