I’ve been struggling to track my expenses consistently 😅
I tried apps and even Excel, but I always end up stopping after a few days.
What works best for you guys? Any simple method that actually sticks?
I recently started using a simple budget planner and it helps a bit, but I’m curious what others use.
What’s the easiest way to track expenses for beginners?
byu/Plenty-Classic-283 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Plenty-Classic-283
7 Comments
One thing I noticed is consistency is the hardest part 😅
I tried apps and Excel but I always stop after a few days.
Using a simple planner helped me a bit, but still figuring out what works best.
I struggle immensely with keeping up on logging expenses. Right now, the thing that has stuck the most was making my payments throughout the month big red calendar events recurring monthly. It’s a small start, but a huge leap compared to my inconsistency with spreadsheets and notebooks
You need to diagnose *why* you are only stopping after a few days. You probably also shouldn’t be doing it so frequently. Once a week or even once per month should be sufficient.
I recommend an existing free/paid tool. I settled on Rocket Money, but there are other good ones out there.
That being said, you’ll learn a ton more if you build all the spreadsheets yourself and manually enter expenses each week/month.
IMHO you have to be sick and tired of your previous self. Only then you get you stuff together. No amount of automation or self control will help if you mildly disappointed. So go ahead look at you finances, get sick and tired and track your transactions 😉
The trick isn’t finding the perfect system, but the one that works for you and that requires so little effort that you can’t talk yourself out of doing it.
For me, that meant accepting I’m never going to manually log every coffee and definitely not gonna do it daily! I built a rhythm around reviewing transactions once a week (every 2 weeks too sometimes, Sunday morning with coffee), categorizing them in bulk, and focusing on the big categories that actually move the needle — rent, groceries, restaurants, travel.
I suggest starting really simple: pick 5-7 categories max and leave one for stuff you don’t remember (that helped ma lot). Don’t try to track every subcategory. “Food” is fine. “Transportation” is fine. You can get granular later if you want, but most people quit because they over-complicate it.
Also I set a recurring calendar reminder once a week. Open your bank app or credit card statement and just write down the totals per category in a whichever tool you’re using (excel, notes, a piece of paper). Takes 5 minutes. Do that for a month and you’ll actually see patterns.
What made you stop with the apps and Excel before? Was it the data entry, or something else?
What exactly is causing you to burn out on tracking?
Do you just find typing transactions to an Excel sheet every few days to be tedious?
If so, use an app like monarch or empower that syncs directly from your accounts.
Check it a few times a month and make sure things are going as planned. Doesn’t need to be a daily activity.