How do you ‘feel’ about your spending?

No, really. Do you know your feelings and emotions around your spending habits?

I am a big believer in tracking your expenses. And for all the practical reasons, of course: transparency around our spending, increased awareness of our money habits, and a mathematical basis for being able to actually save as much as we mathematically can.

But there’s another quirk to expense tracking that doesn’t get talked about. And it’s this: it allows us to tap into our feelings about how we spend money.

And sometimes, those feelings are uncomfortable! It can be off-putting to “see” – in black and white – that we’re spending a certain amount on TV subscription services. Or fashion. Or any other thing that we know we don’t want to be spending so much on.

(And for what it’s worth – if those feelings are deeply negative or crippling, that can be its own sign that we need to speak with a licensed professional. Or make a major change.)

But it can also be empowering to see that frivolous spending decrease – whether it’s the next month, the next quarter, or however long. It can be reaffirming to our sense of self, to see when we’ve progressed towards a saving goal or eliminated an unnecessary expense. And it can reinforce our self-confidence, to see that we can take back even some control of our financial reality.

At the end of the day, it’s up to us. Expense tracking can be a means to an end, and nothing more.

But if we give it a proper chance – getting to know our expenses is just one more way for us to get intimate with who we are today, and the person we’d ultimately like to become.