A few months ago, I wrote an article explaining that the solution to keeping a budget is as simple (and complex) as maintaining awareness, and I asked you to do two things:

1. For 30 days, every time you make a purchase, take three seconds to notice what you spend your money on.

2. Send me your stories about your discoveries.

The point was not to change your behavior, or to beat yourself up with what I like to call “the budget stick.” The point was simply to notice.

You sent me a lot of great emails, with some awesome stories about your experiment. Maybe you noticed you spend more money on groceries than you’re comfortable with (or less). Or maybe you discovered that all those little purchases you make on Amazon add up to quite a lot. Either way, for many of you, noticing was just the tip of the iceberg.

Reading through your emails, though, it was pretty clear that a lot of you had the same question: “O.K., what’s next?”