Does Your Spending Line up with Your Values? {Day 15 of 21 Days of Hope + Help for Your Money}

This is Day 15 of 21 Days of Hope + Help for Your Money, a series providing you encouragement and tips to start the year off on a note of hope. Catch up on previous posts here. For future posts, come back daily or subscribe to have them emailed directly to you.

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” — James W. Frick

Have you ever done a time audit? That’s where you monitor and record how you spend your time over a 24-hour period (or longer). You list exactly what you do. If you’ve never done that, I recommend you try it sometime. It’s pretty eye-opening. That hobby you don’t have time for? You do! You’re just spending it somewhere else.

But, I digress…We’ve been tracking our expenses for the last seven days (you have been doing that, right?). Now, we’re going to audit our spending.

Remember waaaaay back on Day 1, when I asked what your “why” was? I asked what is it that shapes your goals and motivates you to improve your finances? Well, now that you’ve identified your “why,” my question to you is, does your spending line up with your “why” and with what you value? Does your spending point you toward your “why” or get in its way?

If you value creating experiences for your kids or travel or personal development, does your day-to-day spending reflect that? If you were to hand over your checkbook or bank statements to someone else to look at, what would they say is important to you, and would they be correct?

If your spending does not reflect what you value, you’re working against your “why.”

Action Step

Do a Spending Audit

Since you’ve been tracking your expenses since Day 8, you now have a full week of spending recorded. Take a look at what you’ve spent your money on over the past seven days. Does your spending line up with your “why” and what you value?

(If you want to get a better sense of your average spending, take a look at your checkbook or credit card and bank statements for the last few months.)

How do you need to tweak your spending so that it reflects your “why” and your values?