Practical guide

How to track your expenses: notebook, spreadsheet or app?

Reading time: 6 minutes · Updated October 2026

Almost everyone decides, sooner or later, to write down what they spend. And almost everyone stops after two or three weeks. It is rarely a lack of willpower: the method simply asked for more effort than a normal day allows. Here are the three most common ways, what each gives you, what it asks in return, and a simple way to choose.

First, the rule that applies to all of them

Whatever tool you choose, it only works if you log the expense when you make it, not from memory in the evening. Memory keeps the big purchases and loses the small ones — exactly the ones you cannot account for later. The right method is the one that lets you do it in a few seconds, wherever you are.

1. Notebook or phone notes

How it works: you write the date, the amount and two words of description.

• Strengths: you can start right now, there is nothing to learn, and writing by hand makes you think about the purchase.
• Limits: totals are manual. After a month you have a list, not an answer: to know how much went on food or transport you have to add it up again every time.
• Good for: trying it for a month to see whether the habit sticks.

2. Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets)

How it works: one row per expense, with columns for date, amount, category and description; the sheet does the sums.

• Strengths: you build it your way, totals by category and by month are automatic, and the data stays yours in a file.
• Limits: it is awkward on a phone, so you end up postponing until you are home (and working from memory). Categories must be typed identically every time or the sums split. And a sheet calculates, but it does not point anything out: if an expense comes back every month or keeps growing, you have to notice it yourself.
• Good for: people who are comfortable with formulas and happy to sit at a computer once a week.

3. A dedicated app

How it works: you enter the expense on your phone; the app puts it in a category and updates totals and charts on its own.

• Strengths: it is always in your pocket, so you log on the spot. The maths is already done. The more complete apps recognise expenses that come back and show how your habits change over time.
• Limits: you have to trust whoever stores the data, so check where the servers are and whether you can export or delete everything. Some apps ask you to connect your bank account: convenient, but not for everyone. Some apps do not ask for it.
• Good for: anyone who wants to keep going past the first month without redoing the sums by hand.

How to choose

Ask yourself three questions, in this order:

1. Where am I when I spend? If you are usually out, you need something that lives on your phone.
2. How much time do I want to give it each week? If the answer is "as little as possible", rule out anything that needs manual sums.
3. What do I want to know at the end? If the monthly total is enough, anything works. If you want to understand where and why, you need categories and month-to-month comparisons.

What if I am starting from zero but my bank already has months of transactions?

You do not have to retype them. Your bank lets you download the list of transactions as a file: here is how to get it and use it. A spreadsheet opens it directly; with MoneyFlow you upload it and your history is already there.

How MoneyFlow does it

MoneyFlow is an app of the third kind, designed to remove the two most common points of friction. The first is the category: while you type the description, the app suggests one and remembers it next time. The second is getting started: you can import transactions from a bank file instead of entering them one by one. You do not connect your account and you do not hand credentials to anyone.

Frequently asked questions