Maybe a bit basic but at the beginning of every month I clone this Google Sheets template, set goals in each category, and manually log receipts as I spend. Then at the end of the month, I “audit” my budget against my credit card transactions, pay off credit, and create the next month’s budget with any adjustments learned from the previous one.
For bigger view, long-term, I just linked all my accounts into Quicken and look at it sometimes.
I have an Excel workbook with three worksheets. One worksheet calculates my paydays out over the next few years, and using Excel formulas a table of paydays per month is calculated. I get paid every two weeks, so some months are 3 pay checks and the rest are 2. If you get paid a fixed amount per month it's easier.
The next sheet has tables for annual, monthly, and weekly expenses. The annual table has a column for month of the year. If I have a quarterly payment, I add it to the annual table four times, each with the correct month.
The final worksheet is a basic revenue less expenses table, one for each calendar year. It lists my income per month for each month, and then lists my monthly expenses, my annual expenses that hit that month, and weekly expenses calculated to reflect the partial weeks. All using formulas do it is easy to extend out to future years.
The worksheet also calculated how much I have left over, and what my savings target is (80% of unbudgeted funds). It's important for the actual costs of each month to be accurate, because averages hide real world things, like in November I have a large amount of renewals including my annual car insurance payment. I will always spend more than I make in November, and knowing that means I'm not panicking with unexpected expenses.
What I've found is that there is an art to budgeting. For example, I budget $100/month for discretionary purchases, plus $20/week to take my kids out for cocoa. You want to be specific enough in the budget that you have fairly few purchases not directly accounted for, with a little bit of latitude that it doesn't become a grind to track purchases.
Over the course of the month any purchase that exceeds the budgeted amount or that doesn't fit a budget category gets tracked on a separate sheet so I can see if I need to rebudget or if there was just a one time thing. Generally speaking, if it is too much work to track your individual purchases, you might be making too many small or impulse purchases that add up.
I also use Excel for my shopping lists to stay focused when I go to the store, and the mobile app easily lets me strike through items as I get them.
GnuCash. I’m with Starling Bank. I transfer about £550 to my credit card pot to spend for the month and do my very best not to exceed it. I have an Amex (default) and MasterCard credit cards on which all my day-to-day spending occurs. American Express gives me a balance text every Sunday, but entering purchases in GnuCash makes sure I know what it is roughly.
20% off the paychecks directly to registered retirement account. Use a cashback credit card for everything, pay it off every paycheck, and watch carefully that the balance doesn’t exceed what you can pay off. This is key, never pay card interest. Nice hefty reward from that every year. For things that can’t be charged to the card, annualized payment from a high interest savings account which I replenish every paycheck just enough to ensure all the annual payments can be drawn when the times come, all tracked with a spreadsheet for each bill. Extra goes in there for emergency funds, avoids paying interest when unexpected costs come up.
My bank has some neat online banking features that break down where my money comes from and where I spend it on. It also compares my current expenses to my monthly average so I can see if I’m spending more. I’m sure I can do better by doing it on my own, but for someone lazy like me, it’s a good starting point to get an overview of my finances.
We have a retroactive Google Sheet which pulled from Reddit years ago where we put our transactions in and categorise them. Lets us see where we spent money
There are apps that can automatically track in- and outgoing payments for your account, as well as classify them to give you an overview. I use Finanzguru, though I suspect that’s only available in Germany.
If you’re struggling with money, here’s my approach: If it isn’t absolutely necessary to have, sleep on it at least once before buying it, no matter how cheap it is. Works quite well, its weird how much your perspective can often change within a day.
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