Been trying to get my financial life in order and it’s way harder than it should be. I’ve used spreadsheets, basic banking tools, and even some budgeting apps, but it still feels like I’m either: underestimating expenses
forgetting planned bills
overspending without realizing it
or just not seeing where my money actually goes
Every time I think I’m on top of it something slips through the cracks. Feels like the tools are either too simplistic or too complicated. I want clarity without chaos. How do people actually build a budget that sticks? What tracking habits or tools have genuinely changed your relationship with money?
Why is budgeting still so hard even with all the apps out there?
byu/prettyyugly inpersonalfinance
Posted by prettyyugly
12 Comments
You mjght need to change your expectations around budgeting/tracking spending. Doing something well usually takes effort.
Pausing to adjust your budget and reflect on your spending patterns is an essential part of keeping your spending in line with your values.
When you’re new to budgeting or finances feel tight, the process should be more manual to force intentionality. When you have a good handle on your expenses or your income is higher, you can go more on autopilot.
The thing that changed it for me was stopping the “track every penny” approach and focusing on the flows instead.
I used to obsess over categorizing every transaction. It lasted about two weeks every time. What actually stuck was setting up a simple system: income comes in, fixed bills get covered first, then I set targets for the flexible categories (groceries, dining, etc.) based on what I actually spent the previous three months.
The other shift was treating overspending as information. It’s not failure unless you believe it to be. If I blow my dining budget three months in a row, that’s not a discipline problem.
For tools, zero-based budgeting worked for me but only after I stopped treating it like envelope stuffing. The key is having something that shows you cash flow forward, not just what you spent last month. Knowing “I have $800 left but $600 in bills coming before next paycheck” is way more useful than a pie chart of last month’s spending.
I think budgeting stays hard because most tools feel like they’re judging you. I’ve seen people stick longer with stuff like Quicken mainly because it feels more like tracking what already happened instead of constantly telling you what you did wrong.
Apps are a crutch; not a solution….they will never (and aren’t designed) to fix your budget or improve your financial standing.
Go old school.
Print a calendar
Print 3 months bank statements
Start filling in the essential bills & paydays (both with value)
Then look at where the rest of your money is going. Decide if that’s a meaningful place to be spending.
List out your financial goals; short and long term.
See if you have the resolve to commit to saving for them or if you might like the idea of having goals rather than achieving them.
Put post its on your car “don’t stop at xx on the drive home
And around the house “closet is already full” “coffee is in here”
Budgeting feels hard because it’s not just math, it’s attention. Miss a week and suddenly everything feels out of sync again.
Budgeting is as much behavior management as it is financial management.
I’ve noticed that the more complex the system the faster I abandon it. But the overly simple ones don’t explain anything, they just tell you you’re “over”.
What finally clicked for me was realizing that tracking is about reducing uncertainty not controlling every dollar. Most tools don’t frame it that way.
Budgeting just gives you information. It doesn’t fix anything. That’s up to you.
A budget is a tool, and you’re using it poorly. If you are forgetting expenses, your budget is incomplete. Overspending without realizing? You aren’t using your budget to make spending decisions. Not seeing where the money goes? You aren’t recording your transactions effectively.
If your budget is chaos, then you need to simplify your financials. Cancel subscriptions, reduce the number of bank and credit card accounts you regularly use. Shop less. You can choose to only spend money as much and as often as you can keep track of.
The best way to budget I’ve found, is to pay every bill first thing when you get paid, then put away what you need for savings and don’t worry about the rest.
Also to have the understanding that some savings are there for unexpected expenses.
So if you have to drain your savings, don’t feel bad about that, instead view it as if you had never had the money, you would have been x amount in debt
So my Google budget spreadsheet goes for the entire year day by day. I have a master monthly template that I then copy into the yearly spreadsheet. It is all filled out roughly so that on the first of the month I have an entry that I owe my rent or mortgage day two is my HOA fees. Then day four five and six are my utility bills. I get paid twice a month, so I feel those in as well on the 15th and the 30th. Even if there’s a month with 31 days I just simply have an entry I’m not trying to really track everything day by day. On the final column I have a formula to calculate income and expenses for that particular day and then subtract that from the day before. I hope that makes sense. This way I can see what the entire year looks like at a glance. So if I know that I’ve got a large expense coming up such as a vacation, I can start setting aside say $200 each pay period towards a vacation fund. If maybe I have an unexpected expense like a car repair, I can enter that in and see what happens down the road. That allows me to make adjustments to account for something that is happening now or down the future. In the 15 years I’ve had this we very rarely have problems that I can’t make an adjustment for.