Costs numbers are available for Stafford hospital case

Without good record keeping, we might not realize the extent of small purchases on our banking.

12:18 22 July 2013

More than a million pages of evidence was submitted as a part of the recent investigation into the Stafford Hospital scandal. Based on reports, the investigation costs were £13million, while the defence spent around £6million mostly on legal advice.

Many times in our banking, we don’t realize how much all our small expenditures amount to at the end of the month. We might even set budgets with a certain spending limit, but it’s easy to accidentally overspend and cause issues.

Here are a few ways to help you find out the true value of your expenses.

• First obtain a software programme that you like, and that seems easy to use. Try free or trial versions before making a purchase. If you prefer to keep things on paper then set aside a certain notebook or ledger to keep track of expenses.

 

• Set aside a time during the month to track all your expenses. Some software can automatically synchronise with your banking account which makes everything much easier, otherwise you’ll want to keep receipts or a register of your expenses during the month. You might find it easiest to record your expenses at the end of each day, or to carry a smaller notebook with you for immediate record keeping.

 

• Turn your banking information into something a little more meaningful by creating a graph. A pie chart can work very well to illustrate your expenses. The majority if your expenses should be housing costs and possibly vehicle loans. If you notice other large areas of expense, you may want to try breaking it into subcategories for further analysis.

 

• If you found that some of your banking issues were caused by too much spontaneous spending, you can work to try and cut back which should give you more money to save or set aside for emergencies.