Atlanta bankruptcy attorney and fellow NACBA member Jonathan Ginsburg has a great post today and recommends two websites that I will also pass along: The first is a blog called Debt Free and more notably, a recent entry called “How……

Great post (and great sites – I’ll be passing them along to my readers too). I find that clients do not know where the money goes on necessities. This is especially the case when debit or credit cards are used for food and fuel purchases. For example, I might ask a client: “how much do you spend on gas per month?” I almost always hear “about $100 or so.” But then, I break it down for them: “how many times do you fill your car in a week?” If they commute to work, the answer might be more than once. “How much does it cost to fill the car?” If we’re talking about a larger vehicle, cross-over or SUV, we’re easily looking at $30 per fill. If a consumer is filling their vehicle 2x per week at $30 per fill, then the cost of fuel more than $250. Of course, it’s easy not to think about it when you need gas to go to work/school/pick up the kids, you have plastic in your hand, and you simply swipe it at the pump. Getting a handle on those numbers can be tough, and it’s not always as simple as asking “ok, what did we spend last month on gas/food/etc.?”

I also am a big advocate of using software for home finances – and I also recommend that folks leave their check book at HOME. Print checks from the computer, promptly enter in your ATM and debit transactions and balance your account monthly. Then, after a few months, you can run reports to see exactly where the money is going.

Bill McLeod