record keeping

Record Keeping
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The first step in Debtors Anonymous states: "We admitted we were
powerless over debt--that our lives had become unmanageable." Our unmanageability often stemmed, in part, from a fear of looking at the reality of our financial situation.

We avoided clearly looking at what we earned, how we spent, what we
saved, and what we owed. Recordkeeping is a tool that we use to help us look without fear at these items. When we face our fears about using this tool, we remember to draw on the
strength of others who have gone before us.

Keeping records gives us clarity. We can see the situation we are in
and can develop plans to change it. For most of us, keeping daily records is the first concrete tool that the D.A. program gave us.
We began our recovery by noting every expenditure, from $.25 for a phone call to $24.35 for a shirt. We also recorded every item of income from wages, gifts, and interest earned, to reimbursements from our employer or insurer. These daily records then became the basis for developing a spending plan, debt payment plan, earning plan and action plan.

By keeping records we began to work the first three steps of Debtors
Anonymous. We acknowledged our powerlessness over incurring unsecured debt and admitted that our way of handling money did not work. We recognized that a power greater
than ourselves could restore our lives to sanity. We then made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to that power--by following the directions we got in D.A. and by continuing to work the remainder of the Twelve Steps of Debtors Anonymous.

We will explain below the different types of records D.D. members keep
and how those records helped us in our recovery. (to be continued)