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    Is there a good way to track spending without giving apps access to your bank?

    I stopped using apps like Mint/Copilot because I didn’t feel comfortable giving them full access to my bank accounts.

    Instead, I started downloading my bank statements (CSV) and built a simple way to analyze my spending manually.

    What I like about this approach:

    • No bank linking / credentials shared
    • Full control over my data
    • Still get monthly breakdowns and insights

    Downsides:

    • Takes a bit more effort (exporting/uploading)
    • Not real-time like connected apps

    Curious — does anyone else do this? Or is bank linking just something most people are okay with?

    Is there a good way to track spending without giving apps access to your bank?
    byu/TryRepresentative254 inpersonalfinance



    Posted by TryRepresentative254

    9 Comments

    1. Inevitable-Study-710 on

      I have an amazing monthly tracker in Google Sheets for this. Analyzes budget, expenses, income. Happy to share a blank copy!

    2. stoneycrk55 on

      We have any Excel spreadsheet that we use. We enter manually from the receipt. We can break a receipt up into different categories. We can then create pivot tables to see how our spending is across months and years for the different categories.

    3. TemporaryIncrease136 on

      You can get one of those apps where you log in it manually. That way you can feel more in control. If not, you can manually put it into an Excel or Google Sheets

    4. stl1859 on

      Yes – I do this – not bank statements – but credit card statements. I pay for everything using a credit card ( unless it is less that $1 ) – and then at the end of the year , I download transactions from all my cards into one Excel sheet – categorize each transaction – and then summarize based on category . It is an incredibly satisfying exercise for me !

      I do the same thing with my bank statements for my rent and electric bill

    6. Quattuor on

      Or, you just could use the GnuCash. Takes a bit of learning, but the tutorial is good. You decide how granular you want it to be. Less cumbersome than spreadsheets

    7. TombCrisis on

      I’ve been expense tracking for over 10 years and never given my bank info to a 3rd party to facilitate that. I started with a spreadsheet, then moved to YNAB4, and then moved to Actual Budget. The latter supports syncing, but I just opt to not use it.

    8. vivekkhera on

      I took the middle road. I use Tiller to automate the fetching of the data and they just deposit it into a spreadsheet. They cache a few weeks of data at most. They even provide a really nice spreadsheet template to do all manner of analysis and budgeting. It is paid service so they are not monetizing me in any other way.

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