If you’re like me, tracking your spending or creating a budget sounds like a horrible way to spend your free time. But, we also feel pressure to be responsible with our money, and budgeting is one of the things we typically view as a responsible action.

Budgeting serves two main purposes: to ensure you’re staying on track to meet your financial goals, and to align your spending with what you value most. Below we’ll walk through some steps you can take to accomplish both of these while avoiding having to track every dollar you spend in the process.

Put Your Savings on Autopilot

Once you know how much you want to be saving to reach our financial goals, the best way to stay on track is to automate your savings as much as possible. 

If you’re already participating in an employer retirement plan, you know how easy it is to save when money is automatically taken from your paycheck. You tend to not miss that money, and you figure out how to live without it.

You can (and should!) set up a similar savings plan for your other goals. Set up automatic transfers from your checking account to your kids’ 529 plans on the day you get paid. Or have a portion of your paycheck directly deposited into a savings account as opposed to your checking account.

Also consider those expenses that are irregular or infrequent throughout the year (think vacations, quarterly tax bills, summer camps, back to school clothes, etc.), and make sure you are setting aside some money to cover those as they pop up.

Have the rest of your money that covers your typical monthly expenses deposited into your checking account. Now you’ve created a barrier to overspending – you’ll have to manually transfer money from your savings account if you exceed your normal monthly expenses.

Track Your Saving and Spending Periodically

Although you don’t need to be tracking your spending daily, it can be helpful to have a sense of where your money is going.  

And this can be made easy – there are apps like Mint and Personal Capital that will categorize all of your transactions from credit cards and bank accounts. Or if most of your expenses are paid from a single credit card, login to your account and see if the credit card company is already categorizing transactions for you.

Once you categorize a few months worth of saving and spending, here is what you should be looking for:

1. Make sure you are saving enough to meet your financial goals. We typically recommend trying to save a minimum of 15-20% of your gross income for retirement. But also think about other goals like college savings or building an emergency fund. If you find that you are coming up short on your savings, you can look for areas in your spending to cut back on.
2. Review your spending to make sure it is consistent with your values. Are you trying to be healthier, but you are spending more on eating out than on groceries? Or maybe you value going out to eat as a way to relax and unwind but see that it’s a very small portion of your total spending. Reviewing your spending in this way allows you to identify areas where you want to make a change.

Make Adjustments as Needed

Once you have your savings automated and a process in place to review your spending periodically, don’t stress over tracking every dollar.

As life changes and you update your goals, review and update your savings plan.

And if you are consistently pulling money from your savings to cover your living expenses – revisit your spending. Has it increased in certain areas? If yes, was that intentional or do you need to make a change? Maybe you need to cut back on savings for a period of time while you rein in your spending.

Hopefully this strategy will give you confidence that you’re making progress toward your financial goals without having to worry about your spending on a daily basis.

Joe Calvetti is a CPA and the founder of Still River Financial Planning, a comprehensive, fee-only financial planning firm that specializes in working with young families and professionals. Click here to learn more about how we work with clients.

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Disclaimer: The information provided above is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or tax advice. You should consult with a professional for advice specific to your situation.