Hello Reader, Happy New Year!

Got any courses you bought but never finished (or even started)? I know I do.

So instead of feeling guilty and overwhelmed, let’s do something about it together. This month I'm writing to you about how to find those purchases and get them done. There are four steps, which I'll send out to you over four weeks. If you want to read ahead, jump over to my blog post, How to Find Old Digital Purchases.

Step 1: Find Purchases on Your Credit Card or Bank Statement

One of the easiest places to start with is to follow the money. What things did you pay for? Let’s start with those.

For me, these purchases are the ones that give me the most guilt. While I feel anxious about any course I don’t do, I feel even worse about the ones I actually paid money for, even if it’s only $7. We’ll get to paid courses that I got for free or were in a bundle later.

Hopefully you have a second and separate bank account or credit card that you use for business. If not, please please please do that. It’s so important that you keep your business finances and personal finances separate.

If you don’t have a budgeting tool, start with your bank statement or credit card statement.

I keep my budget in YNAB (You Need a Budget), so for me it was easier to filter out my purchases for my business, Technically Eclectic, and then export them into a .csv file. I’m just going to start with the things I bought this past year. I can always expand to previous years later. But it’s good to start small so I don’t overwhelm myself.

Once I had it in a spreadsheet, I cleaned up the columns a little, applied filtering to the top row, and then sorted it by Payee. Now I can see all the recurring charges (subscriptions) vs one-time purchases.

Now that I know what I bought and who I bought it from, the next step is to find the login info so I can start making a list of all the things I bought. Stay tuned next week for step 2 (or read ahead on the blog post, How to Find Old Digital Purchases).

What Do You Want to See in the Workshop???

Also, by the end of the month, I'm creating a $9 workshop where you can watch me walk through the process, get step-by-step instructions how to do this on your own, and get my Airtable and Excel templates.

What would you like to see in the workshop? What would make it special for you? What can I add that will help you find those old purchases so they don't go to waste? Let me know and I'll reply to you and make sure I add your suggestion.

Summary

🎯 Your Next Steps:

1. Pull up your business credit card or bank statements (No separate business account yet? Make that your January goal!)
2. Export your purchases to a spreadsheet and sort by: • Vendor/payee name • One-time purchases vs. subscriptions • Date of purchase

💡 Coming Up: - Part 2 next week: How to track down those missing logins (including some shortcuts that might surprise you). Want it all now? Read the full guide at How to Find Old Digital Purchases.

🎉 Special Announcement: I’m creating a $9 workshop to walk you through this entire process! Have input on what would make it most helpful for you? Hit reply - I’d love to hear your ideas.

Best of luck!

Allie, Technically Eclectic Digital organizer, technical writer, and mom of three boys

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P.S. Did you know most people never complete the courses they purchase? Let's beat those odds together! Set a 15-minute timer when you look at your statements. It's amazing what you can find in just 15 focused minutes! What forgotten gems did you find?