I maintain my expenses diligently. It is popularly believed, and restated in my house, that the more you calculate your expenses and incomes, the more dearth you’re likely to face in monetary matters.
This is the one advice I don’t pay heed to. I maintain record of every penny that leaves my physical wallet, my digital wallet or any of my bank accounts / credit cards.
Increasingly, in today’s age of heavy discounts, offers and cashback vis-a-vis coupon codes; this basic activity of maintaining transactions has become difficult.
Apply “CITIFRIDAY” as coupon code on PayTM when buying movie tickets on (not necessarily, for) Friday and get cashback upto Rs 500 for the value of one ticket, when you’ve bought two.
(Yes, the wording is complex)
When I’ve bought two movie tickets for my parents for a show on Tuesday. Booked it on Friday. The transaction cost Rs 635.
How do I journal this in my app ? Its cost me Rs 635 for now. I’ll get the cashback in 90 days. Which means I need to pay Rs 635 when my credit card bill is due but keeping the offer terms in mind, this actually cost Rs 320 in the longer term.
I saved a lot of money but lost all accounting sense where its no more as simple as outflows and inflows : the two metrics without the clause of offers and timelines.
I often face similar dilemmas when buying food online. Ordered on Swiggy, paid through Amazon Pay and ended up getting 25 % cashback on the total bill. However, the cashback will be credited after the food has done its rigmarole in my digestive tract, and I could either enter the original bill value at first and then deduct the cashback received. Or hold off the entry until karma has reaped my monetary benefits for me!
Many such incidental dilemmas are encountered regularly : when returning a product shopped online, when choosing “No Rush Delivery” and getting Rs 15 off on Amazon Prime, when taking an Uber ride that ends up costing you nothing because you have unused credits from a previously disputed ride and so much more!
CA friends, accountancy freaks and batchmates from the Commerce stream – are you listening ?
Scribbling Sheet 