BUSA 1105 Online

Personal Expenditure Project- 160 points

TRACKING EXPENDITURES

: Beginning 

Sunday, 

June 20th

,

you will need to make a 

record each time you spend money. Some examples may include: groceries, rent, child care, 

books, car repairs, entertainment (movie/concert tickets, lunch/dinner out), gas, doctor’s visit, 

etc. There are endless ways you may spend money throughout the day. The idea is to keep a 

journal each time you spend so you become aware of where you are spending your hard-earned 

money.  The last day to record entries will be 

Saturday, July 3rd

. You will be tracking daily 

spending for 

two

weeks. Transfer your daily expenditures into an Excel spreadsheet on a regular 

basis. 

EXCEL (50%)

:  Use a new sheet in the workbook for 

each

week starting on Sundays and 

ending on Saturdays. (Hint: Your Excel workbook should contain 2 sheets/tabs at the bottom). 

Be sure to include the (1) date, the (2) amount, and for (3) what or where the money was spent. 

In the 

personal finance appendix of your BUSN textbook

, there is a discussion of 

discretionary and nondiscretionary payments. 

Next to 

each

daily expenditure in your Excel 

workbook, be sure to (4) distinguish whether the payment was discretionary or nondiscretionary.

There are a variety of ways you can organize each sheet as far as rows/columns. Feel free to be 

creative.  Let this project be a discovery process that will benefit you in your personal finances. 

Be sure to include the four items described above.

PAPER (50%)

: You will need to write a paper (2 pages) regarding the observations you made 

about your daily spending habits. Be sure to discuss the following:



Where your money comes from



Where you spent the most of your money



At least 

three

areas where you can reduce spending AND steps/strategies you can take to 

implement those changes



What type of  traditional investments you have or will work towards establishing and 

why you chose this type of investment(s). 

See your textbook for ideas and different types 

of 

traditional

investments.

Use the 

REPORT

format from class (from the first two writing assignments) for your paper. 

This report should be about 

2 pages

. Use proper punctuation, spelling, grammar, capitalization, 

etc. The report portion of your grade will be based on the preceding items, format and content. 

Please use a 12pt font. Feel free to use your textbook for examples/ideas (p. 328-340), but 

do not

plagiarize!