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A little while back I reached a tipping point. I was fed up with not being able to improve my personal finances (despite saving) or lose weight (despite exercising). I decided that I’m going to stop analyzing why I’m having trouble with those things and just start logging as much as I can about them.

My husband and I started logging our expenses. We’re using simple spreadsheets, logging each individual transaction — cash, debit or credit — and quickly categorizing them for analysis later. We agreed to do this for at least 1 month. It’s nearing the end of the month and I am amazed at how much money I am spending on non-bill things. We decided that 1 month is not enough data to capture irregular expenses so we will log for another 2 months and then sift through the data.

In addition to logging expenses, I have also been logging my food. I’m not good at doing this on my own, so I joined WeightWatchers online 2 weeks ago. Unlike my expense logging, I really needed structure in logging my food and setting targets. I’m not worrying to much at first on whether I’m staying within the limits that WeightWatchers sets for their FlexPlan. I’m simply logging what I normally eat to see where I’m missing the mark. With just 2 weeks it’s been incredibly eye-opening what I should be eating that I’m not eating enough of — namely water, dairy, and a multivitamin so far. I’ve committed to using this site for 3 months, 1 month of simple logging what I normally eat and 2 months of logging and staying within limits.

The hope with all this logging is that the information I gather will really give me a good picture of what I’m doing so I can make educated decisions on how I need to change things in order to meet  the goals I’m setting for myself. I’m really positive about this exercise and I’ll update on progress.