- A daily log: date, description, category, amount. One line per expense, coffee included.
- Preloaded, editable categories with an automatic summary that ranks your categories from largest to smallest.
- An average daily spend counter, which is usually the figure that surprises people more than the total does.
- A column for marking each expense necessary, useful or impulsive - which is where the log stops being bookkeeping and starts being information.
Excel template · Step 2
Expense management
Almost nobody knows what they spend their money on: they know what they think they spend it on. This template exists to close that gap with an uncomfortable and very effective method - writing everything down, no exceptions, for a short period.
Download the template
- Format
- XLSX
- Size
- 9 KB
- Sheets
- 2
- Price
- Free
What's inside
How to use it
- Choose the period before you start: 15 days if you have never done this, a full month if you have.
- Log it at the time, not at the end of the day. What is not written down at the time is forgotten, and what is forgotten is exactly what you were looking for.
- Do not correct your behavior while you are logging. A month distorted by wanting it to look good tells you nothing.
- When it is over, look at only two things: the biggest category, and the total of the impulses.
- Change one thing. One, the heaviest, and measure again next month.
Frequently asked questions
Is 15 days enough?
For daily habits, yes: small repeated expenses show up almost immediately. What 15 days will not capture is the irregular spending - the insurance, the car repair, the birthday present - which is why this template is used alongside the monthly analysis one, which does pick those up.
Would a banking app not be easier?
It is more convenient, which is why it works less well. The app categorizes for you, so the expense passes by without you having to look at it. Writing it by hand is deliberately slow: the friction is the mechanism, not a shortcoming of the template.
What do I do with the result?
Nothing for a week. Read it, let it annoy you, and make no decisions while it stings. Then pick a single change and give it a month. Budgets rebuilt from scratch in one day tend to last exactly that day.