By at least a bit. I'd say this month - in which I've been fairly successful in tracking spending (yay!) I've also reduced spending by about 20% - without consciously "spending less". But still being aware of how much was spent today, or yesterday, or the day before, had an effect on frivolous spending. Now of course, if I reduced a lot of things I really don't need to spend on, such as eating out, Starbucks, etc - the effect would be increased. But simply by tracking everything, I feel the impact of "each dollar", so to speak, and there is a more natural tendency to be a bit more conservative.   more »