The tedious of tedium, but doing the right thing is seldom as enjoyable as doing the wrong, neé debt life. 

After a month of spending track, the illustrious Mr. Edelman suggests converting those dollar amounts to percentages to determine the percentage of total spending occurred in each category (i.e., each column’s dollar total divided by total dollars spent) … [p.306]

And this only represents the percentage of spending tracked for these specific areas … notably absent?  Housing, healthcare, utilities, etc. 

Yes, fairly big/significant/important project, but once the percentage of the 100 coins is spent in/on one specific area, here is where … change happens (seewutdidthere?heeyuk-no)

YMMV, but of the three grand in spending? Nearly 70% of it went to food.  Gotta stop eating.  Well no but can make better choices on what to spend on what and where.  Perhaps Whole Paycheck to fresh meats (beef, chicken, fish) and get dry staples (rice, potatoes, flour) from a discount warehouse store.  Options, options …

So the household-specific monthly spending chart will need to be – you guessed it – specific to a particular household’s spending … mortgage/rent, car note, feeding habits, school supplies, clothing (if kiddies, if not – wear that old crap), pets, etc.

Once know better, can do better. 

How nicely that works.