EyeOnYour monthly budget tracker
- Enter what you take home this month.
- Every time you spend, add a line in the right group: what it was and how much.
- Check the summary to see what each group adds up to and what's left.
Your entries are saved only in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent to us.
For your own tracking only: this is not financial advice and doesn't tell you what you should spend.
Where does your money actually go?
Lots of people get to the end of the month and wonder where their money went. Pay comes in, bills go out, and somewhere in between the rest seems to disappear. It isn't usually one big purchase. It's a coffee here, a subscription there, or a takeaway on a night you're too tired to cook. None of these feels like much on its own, but together they can add up to a surprising amount. It's hard to make choices about spending you can't see.
A simple way to get clear is to track your spending for one month. It doesn't need a complicated spreadsheet or a banking app. Some people use their phone's notes app, some use a paper notebook, and some use a tool like the tracker above. What matters is writing every purchase down, however small, and adding it all up at the end.
Five simple groups
Lots of categories can make tracking feel like a chore. Five broad groups are often enough. Bills covers regular fixed costs like rent or housing payments, energy, phone and insurance. Food shopping is groceries and household basics. Eating out covers cafés, restaurants, takeaways and delivery apps. Subscriptions includes streaming, apps, memberships and anything else that renews on its own. Random stuff is everything else: the impulse buys, small treats and one-off purchases that don't fit anywhere.
The random group is often the one that surprises people most. Because these purchases are unplanned and spread out, they rarely get noticed until they're added together. Subscriptions can be just as revealing. Many people find a service they forgot about, still renewing quietly every month.
Watch first, change later
A useful way to approach your first month is to change nothing at all. The point is to observe, not to judge. If you try to cut back while tracking, you may get a less honest picture of your normal habits. Just let the month run as usual and record what happens.
At the end of the month, look at the totals with curiosity. Which group was bigger than you expected? Was there anything you didn't remember buying, or anything you'd happily do without? Some people find their spending already matches their priorities. Others spot a few things they might want to look at again. Either way, you'll be making decisions based on real numbers rather than guesswork.
Making it a habit
One month gives you a snapshot. Tracking now and then, perhaps every few months or after a change in income or circumstances, can show how your habits shift over time. Keeping it light and simple often makes it easier to stick with. You don't have to log everything forever for it to be useful.
Everyone's situation is different. Costs, incomes and priorities vary from person to person and from country to country, so there's no single "right" amount to spend in any group. A tracker shows you what happened. What you do with that information is up to you. If you try it, you might be surprised by what turns up.