this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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What do you use for keeping track of expenses and income (lemmy.today)
submitted 3 weeks ago by vurr@lemmy.today to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml
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So I'm considering just using excel to keep track of all my expenses and income, but is there a better solution? What do you use to track how you spend money? I want something from which I can freely export the data if need be so excel is tempting.

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[โ€“] korendian@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Google docs. I made a custom dashboard that I manually enter each transaction with a category for each entry, and it tracks current balance, category budgets, etc. I also have a separate tab for credit card debt, payment dates, previous month spending displayed on graphs, etc. I have tried automated solutions like YNAB, but it always ends up getting desynced from my bank account and becomes inaccurate eventually, leading to require manual updates anyway. This manual system is something I stay on top of every day, and has helped me inform my daily financial decisions pretty well.

[โ€“] otp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

Same, but Excel for me.

I haven't tried automated solutions, only manually putting stuff into a spreadsheet and it works great for me. Lots of automated calculations and such in there though so I can get stats at a glance.

It takes me an hour or so each week, plus an extra hour each month, plus an additional hour each year (since I update certain things monthly and yearly), but it really helps me stay on top of my budget/financial goals etc.