Have you ever uttered those words? If so, it was probably after the holidays or your birthday, at month end, year end or at tax time. It happens to everyone. No matter how careful you are with your receipts, the one you need five minutes ago is the one you can’t find.

Do you have any idea how much money you spent last month? Yesterday? So far today? If you’re on a budget, or should be, the first thing anybody will tell you is to figure out where you’re spending your money. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t stand to save a bit of money, so I thought I’d share this tip with you.

Invest in a desk spike. Nothing fancy, just one of those extremely-dangerous-looking-upside-down-nails-on-a-round-base things. You know what I mean. If you’ve worked as an in house assistant, you probably had a collection of pink phone messages stabbed on one sitting on your desk. Anyway, it will hardly cost anything, and it can double as a weapon in a bad situation.

Leave the spike on your desk and every time you buy something, put the receipt on the spike. At the end of the month, input your receipts in your accounting software or have your VA do it At this point, file them in whatever way it makes sense to you - I file mine by month.

There. Now if you want to know how much you’re spending every day on magazines, lotto tickets, coffee, kitty litter, envelopes, etcetera, you’ll know!

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