How do you track your monthly/annual expenses?

[Anonymous]

Don't listen to all these olds. Just run all your bank and credit card statements through AI and you got a budget.

[Anonymous]

I likely make far less than most people on this site, but I don't keep track of my expenses. I just write down the monthly balance of my checking/savings account, so it's obvious if things are going in the wrong direction. It shouldn't be a mystery where your money is going. I know that when I go out to eat I'm getting hosed lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to all these olds. Just run all your bank and credit card statements through AI and you got a budget.

Yes, definitely wise to make it so easy for those broligharchs to get your personal data while ruining the planet in the meantime!

[Anonymous]

Another YNAB user. I've been doing it for about three years and it has been a huge game changer in our finances. I don't have it linked to any of my accounts, I just update it manually. I do it every single morning when I'm drinking my coffee. It takes me about five minutes a day. The initial setup took a few hours and there was a learning curve. But once I figured everything out, it is now so quick and easy and I know where every penny goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't. Realizing this is probably my good fortune and privilege at this point in my life and career.

I don’t either. It’s kind of dumb not to but I hate is so much that I don’t bother.

[Anonymous]

+1 for YNAB.

[Anonymous]

Like a few others have said I don't. I just live frugally day to day and check my bank accounts weekly. I've never had any problems.

[Anonymous]

I don’t and I never have. Whatever I’m bleeding in unused subscriptions or whatever can’t be worth all the time.

My main money goal is to have enough so day to day spending isn’t a big deal.

[Anonymous]

I don't but we do our best to live off 1 paycheck so I know when we need to watch ourselves better. We do not totally achieve this because big ticket items...new roof, cars, vacations come from the second paycheck. As long as the typical stuff comes from paycheck 1 we feel good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10+ YNAB user. It keep everything organized. I know exactly where my money is going. There is a bit of learning curve initially though.

Same. Worth the learning curve. I used mint in the past, tried monarch, personal capital, none match YNAB.

[Anonymous]

Honestly we charge everything we can. I can track what we are spending through the credit card and our bank account automatic payments. We just pay the credit card in full every month.

[Anonymous]

You can feed your pdf statements into Claude and then do all kind of analysis. I used to used excel but Claude has turned out to be better. Claude even have me a plan that has so far allowed me to cut my spending and save more.

[Anonymous]

I use Google sheets. Created a budget based on take home and fixed expenses. Track everything. Wife refuses to even look at it. Says..."If we run over, we tap into savings. We have money. We aren't poor." F-ing pisses me off so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t and I never have. Whatever I’m bleeding in unused subscriptions or whatever can’t be worth all the time.

My main money goal is to have enough so day to day spending isn’t a big deal.

But if you don't know how much you actually spend, how do you know what is enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t and I never have. Whatever I’m bleeding in unused subscriptions or whatever can’t be worth all the time.

My main money goal is to have enough so day to day spending isn’t a big deal.

But if you don't know how much you actually spend, how do you know what is enough?

I mean, I know the bottom line? I just don't go in and categorize.