How to track your personal expenses.
Tracking your expenses means writing down everything you pay for, grouping it by category, and comparing at the end of the month what you spent with what you meant to spend. You can do it in a spreadsheet, in an app, or with cash envelopes. The method matters less than the habit: log every day, even when it is a small amount.
| Method | Suits you if | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet | You want full control, for free, and like seeing the formulas | Opening it every day and typing each expense |
| App | You want to log in seconds from your phone and have it add up for you | Picking an app and, for some, paying a subscription |
| Cash envelopes | You pay for almost everything in cash and want a cap you cannot break | Taking out the cash and splitting it into envelopes. It does not work for card payments |
You can mix them: envelopes for groceries, and a spreadsheet or an app for the rest.
- Method
- A spreadsheet, an app, or cash envelopes
- Categories
- 6 to 10 to start
- When to log
- The day you spend
- Review
- 10 minutes a week, and a close at month end
- More than one currency
- Note the currency and the rate you paid at
- Template
- Free, in Excel or CSV
How it works
Pick a method
A spreadsheet if you like seeing the formulas, an app if you want to log from your phone in seconds, envelopes if you pay for almost everything in cash.
Set your categories
Start with a few: housing, groceries, eating out, transport, utilities, health, subscriptions, and other. You can split them later.
Log every expense the same day
Include the coffee, the tip, and the bank fees. Small things are what you forget.
Log fixed costs once
Rent, utilities, and subscriptions repeat. Write them down once with the day they charge, so none of them surprises you.
Review weekly, close monthly
Each week, look at what you have spent per category and compare it with the week before. At month end, add up each category, compare it with your plan, and adjust next month's.
Three methods, compared
Spreadsheet. One row per expense, with the date, a note, the amount, the currency, and the category. A formula like SUMIFS adds up each category by month. Our free template already has those formulas, a monthly summary, and a chart.
App. An app saves each expense in seconds and does the math for you. Some read receipts or understand what you say, and others connect to your bank. Before you pick one, check which countries it works in, whether it handles your currency, and what it costs after the trial.
Cash envelopes. At the start of the month you put each category's cash in its own envelope. When an envelope is empty, that spending is over until next month. It works well for groceries and going out, and badly for subscriptions and card payments. Some budget apps copy the method with virtual envelopes.
How to split what you earn
If you do not know how much to give each category, the 50/30/20 rule is a starting point: 50% for needs, 30% for wants, and 20% for savings or debt. Our calculator does the math with your income, per week, every two weeks, or per month. After a month of logging, adjust the split to what you actually spend.
If you spend in more than one currency
If you are paid in dollars and spend in pesos or euros, log each expense in the currency you paid in, with the rate you got. To add up the month, convert everything to one currency at each day's rate, not today's. That way an expense from three weeks ago does not change when the rate moves.
Common mistakes
Logging only the big expenses. The small ones add up to more than you think.
Forgetting cash and bank fees, and starting with too many categories.
Checking only once the money has run out, or quitting after a bad month. An expensive month is information too.
If you would rather use an app
Outlayr, the app we make, logs an expense when you type a sentence, say it, or scan the receipt, in 165 currencies at the rate of the day. It is free to start on iPhone and Android. If you already keep a spreadsheet, you can import it as a CSV.
Questions
What is the best way to track my expenses?
The one you will use every day. If you spend the day at a computer, a spreadsheet; if you pay for most things from your phone, an app; if you pay mostly in cash, envelopes. You can also mix them: envelopes for groceries and a spreadsheet or an app for the rest.
How many expense categories should I use?
6 to 10 at first. With too many, every expense becomes a decision and it is easier to quit. Split a category only when it grows, like food into groceries and eating out.
How often should I review my expenses?
About 10 minutes a week, and a close at the end of the month. The weekly check lets you correct in time; the close tells you whether next month's plan needs to change.
How do I track expenses in more than one currency?
Log each expense in the currency you paid in, with the rate you got that day. When you add up, convert everything to one main currency at each expense's rate. That way your totals do not change every time the rate moves.
Is there a free expense tracking template?
Yes. Our Excel template has a transactions sheet, a monthly summary for the currency you pick, budget against spending per category, and a chart. It also comes as a CSV.
Track every expense in one sentence.
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Keep reading
Guides
Free expense tracker template for Excel.
An expense tracker template is a spreadsheet where you log each expense and it adds them up for you. This one is a free Excel workbook with a monthly summary, spending against a budget per category, and a chart, and also a plain CSV. Both have the columns Outlayr's CSV import reads, for when you move to the app.
Calculators
50/30/20 budget calculator
Split your take home pay into needs, wants, and savings, by the 50/30/20 rule or a stricter split.
Guides
Plan a budget and see where this pace ends.
Outlayr sets a budget per category or one for the whole month, carries over what you did not spend, and says where your current pace ends before the month does.