Just a suggestion. Save every receipt starting on the first of each month and for the entire month. Put them in a basket or in a drawer or something all together. At the end of the month sit down at a table with a pad of paper and all the receipts and copy the date, the place the receipt is from, and the amount spent. If you spend money at the same places a lot , group them all together. If you do this you will see where all your money for the month goes. You’ll have a record of your spending.You can see if you are wasting money on something and it will help you on the next step, which is budgeting. It’s actually a lot simpler than it sounds.
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Thanks for the tip Nick! 
Thanks for this… I’ve been trying to adopt your suggestion and learn how to do this on my own.
Your right… I have to know how much I have coming in and going out before I know what my budget is for certain things. I think I was putting the cart before the horse on this one.
This works great. I’ve been doing it for years, but with an Excel spreadsheet. I have a spreadsheet for every month, and it tells me how much I’ve spent and what my projected budget is for each area (utilities, health, food, etc).
So I can look at December and see how much I’m going to spend on food. It’s pretty neat!
Blessings,
Anthony
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The Avon catalogue had a ceramic jar that had the word “Receipts” on the front. The price was $12.99. 
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