Assign categories appropriate to your situation and decide what to put under them. You may want to enter gross income in the income column and assign an expense category to taxes. Or you may want to enter only net income in the income column and not record taxes. Combine or divide categories as you see fit, but let simplicity be your rule. The simpler the records, the more likely you are to keep them.
Some persons enter all income and expenses daily.
Others keep a spindle in a handy place for receipts of cash spending and record these at the end of the week or month. You may want to record only cash expenditures in the notebook and rely on check stubs and credit card receipts for records of other expenditures. At the end of the month, add up total income and expenses under each heading. Transfer these figures to an annual spending plan in which you have listed expected income and expenses for each month. Comparing what you spent with what you said you would spend will indicate any necessary adjustments in your financial plan or future spending habits.