Most people think they know where their money goes each month… but when they actually run an expense audit, they find hundreds—sometimes thousands—of dollars quietly leaking out of their budget.
Today we're walking through how to run a simple expense audit, how to find those leaks, and how to use a "value matrix" to decide what's worth keeping—and what's quietly draining your life and your wallet.
| Rule/Formulas | Description |
|---|---|
| Expense Audit | Evaluate your spending regularly to identify leaks or unnecessary expenditures. |
| Value Matrix | A four-quadrant tool to assess expenses based on joy and cost: |
| - High Joy, Low Cost (Best) | |
| - High Joy, High Cost (Consider optimizing) | |
| - Low Joy, Low Cost (Keep but examine) | |
| - Low Joy, High Cost (Cut or trim) | |
| Save 50% Rule | Aim for a 50% savings rate to ensure financial security and independence. |
| Tool/Strategy | Description |
|---|---|
| Expense Audit Challenge | Community initiative to assess spending from February to March. |
| Value Matrix | Tool for analyzing expenses to prioritize spending based on joy and cost. |
| YNAB (You Need A Budget) | Budgeting tool that tracks spending efficiently; useful for expense audits. |
| Monarch Money | Expense tracking tool integrated with financial accounts for easier audits. |