Credit Cards to Monitor Your Spending in 7 Steps

Credit Cards

Your credit cards are wonderful tools to track, monitor, and control your spending.
Here is how you can do it:

1. You only need to use two credit cards, say, Visa and MasterCard

2. Use one of them, say Visa, for standing orders with the card issuer to charge telephone bills, electricity and insurance premiums

3. Use another card, MasterCard, for charging the following expenses when you go shopping:

• groceries
• clothing
• other household items
• children’s expenses such as books and stationery
• entertainment
• other expenses incurred irregularly such as medical or dental expenses
• holiday
• petrol

4. Review the charges for the first card (Visa) by looking closely at the monthly statements to see major changes especially your utility bills. Look for power wastage and reduce consumption. Cut down unnecessary telephone calls and then allocate a budget for this card. You should also use this card for the purchase of big-ticket items by taking advantage of the zero-interest installment plan. The amount to spend on this card is quite fixed.

5. Look at the monthly statements of MasterCard to study the spending pattern in the total amount from month to month. It gives you an overview of your monthly expenditures in these areas. After that you check the amount you spent for each item, namely, groceries, clothing, other household items, children’s expenses, and others, Identify areas where you can trim expenses and allocate an amount for this card and spend as budgeted.

6. By checking the statements of the two cards you can monitor and control your monthly spending. You will be able to spot excesses in your spending against your budget and be alerted to act accordingly.

7. The last thing is to look into your cash expenses. You should also allocate an amount as your pocket money to cover other expenses that you cannot pay by credit cards. Such expenses should include tuition fees for the children and their monthly allowances.


Using your credit cards to track, monitor, and control your expenses is a breeze.