My spreadsheet lied to me about my grocery budget for 8 months

I was tracking every receipt and felt great, but my actual bank balance said otherwise. Turns out I forgot to log 3 cash purchases a week, which was like $45 gone each time. Anyone else find their data has a blind spot that obvious?

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laura_black29d ago

Ugh that hurts haha. I did something similar last year but with cash tips. I was counting them as "fun money" in my head but never wrote them down, so my budget said I had like $80 extra a month and I kept wondering why my savings account wasn't moving. It took me 4 months to realize my "fun money" was actually covering my coffee runs and random gas station snacks. Then I got so paranoid I started logging every single penny, even the change I found in the couch. Honestly the worst part is the spreadsheet showed a perfect little line going up and I felt so proud of myself while my actual account was doing the opposite.

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