Slowing down the Internets, one call at a time
August 10, 2006 at 4:59 PM by Dr. Drang
This post on Lifehacker led me to this tip on keeping track of expenses when you’re away from your computer. Basically, you
- Get a GMail account.
- Get a K7 account and configure it to forward voice messages to GMail.
- Use your cell phone to call the K7 number and leave a message for yourself about what you’ve bought and what it cost.
- Go through the messages when you’re back at your computer and write up your expense report or budget.
If that isn’t Rube Goldbergian enough for you, the tip adds what it calls a “bonus” suggestion: transfer your messages to your iPod “and listen to them one after another as you do your budget.” I think they’re serious.
Far be it from me to keep others from hogging bandwidth, but if you find yourself unable to write down your expenses as you make them, and you like the idea of using a voice message instead, you can:
- Use the voice recorder on your cell phone (did you forget about that feature? I’ll bet your phone has it) to leave yourself an expense message.
- Play back those messages when you’re ready to do the report or budget.
I’ve been doing this for years to keep track of business-related driving time and mileage. I haven’t used it for other expenses because they typically come with receipts.
This isn’t meant to disparage K7—if I spent more time on the road I might consider using it.
