I think I do the same as you do except that I don't write it down. I have always been very conscious of every penny I spend without putting any effort into that consciousness and I have never been in any particular amount of debt in my entire life. In a message dated 8/20/2008 7:00:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Years ag I was in severe debt to the tune of several thousand dollars. I wrote down everything I spent by carrying a casette recorder and just inputting everything and I mean everything including the purchases for a dollar and under. I did nothing else. It helped tremendously. I got out of debt by just getting conscious of what I was doing which is where writing down things helps. I made no formal budget other than that and paid off the debt every week a little at a time until it was gone. Hope this personal input is useful to somebody. I have never been in debt since. Elizabeth E. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. **************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here. (http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)