First Things First

I think there are two things required to get out of where I find myself now.

1. Make more money.
2. Control my spending.

Where to start?

Spending is the easiest and fastest thing for me to change. Or is it? To be honest I don't know how I spend my money most of the time. When I really think about it it's no wonder I'm always broke. I don't manage my money so much as I spend until it's gone. I can probably budget for my big, fixed expenses, but until I really understand how I spend the rest of my money how can I budget appropriately?

What I've decided to do is to track my spending over the next two weeks. I have a small pocket notebook that I plan to carry with me all the time. If I spend a cent I'll record it. This will hopefully understand where I'm spending money.