you will need to make a
record each time you spend money. Some examples may include: groceries, rent, child care,
books, car repairs, entertainment (movie/concert tickets, lunch/dinner out), gas, doctor’s visit,
etc. There are endless ways you may spend money throughout the day. The idea is to keep a
journal each time you spend so you become aware of where you are spending your hard-earned
money. The last day to record entries will be
Saturday, July 3rd
. You will be tracking daily
spending for
two
weeks. Transfer your daily expenditures into an Excel spreadsheet on a regular
basis.
EXCEL (50%)
: Use a new sheet in the workbook for
each
week starting on Sundays and
ending on Saturdays. (Hint: Your Excel workbook should contain 2 sheets/tabs at the bottom).
Be sure to include the (1) date, the (2) amount, and for (3) what or where the money was spent.
In the
personal finance appendix of your BUSN textbook
, there is a discussion of
discretionary and nondiscretionary payments.
Next to
each
daily expenditure in your Excel
workbook, be sure to (4) distinguish whether the payment was discretionary or nondiscretionary.
There are a variety of ways you can organize each sheet as far as rows/columns. Feel free to be
creative. Let this project be a discovery process that will benefit you in your personal finances.
Be sure to include the four items described above.
PAPER (50%)
: You will need to write a paper (2 pages) regarding the observations you made
about your daily spending habits. Be sure to discuss the following:
Where your money comes from
Where you spent the most of your money
At least
three
areas where you can reduce spending AND steps/strategies you can take to
implement those changes
What type of traditional investments you have or will work towards establishing and
why you chose this type of investment(s).
See your textbook for ideas and different types
of
traditional
investments.
Use the
REPORT
format from class (from the first two writing assignments) for your paper.
This report should be about
2 pages
