How to Track Your Spending
Tracking your spending is a record of what left, sorted so you can add it up. It is not yet a budget. The budget is the plan you write after the record is real. Writing that plan is on how to make a budget. Putting each planned category next to what you spent is on budget vs actuals. This page stays on the record: a pen, a spreadsheet, your bank's app, or a budgeting app, then categories, a weekly review, subscriptions, receipts, and one example week. Gas, groceries, coffee, and household errands are the day-to-day slice, on how to track daily expenses. Using that record to stop the leaks is on how to stop overspending.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on June 5, 2019, calls logging your spending the heaviest step, because that is how you see where the money went in an ordinary month. The same post says that if a month feels like too much, start with one week. Review your receipts, or the checking account, or keep a daily log so the small purchases are on the page. A folder of receipts you look through at the end of each week is one way to keep the record current. Update it when your spending habits change.
Checked . The prices in the Monarch section were read from the vendor pages linked at the end. A fact a page does not state is marked Not documented.
Four ways to keep the record
Pick one way and use it for the week. Switching halfway makes the total look cleaner without changing what you spent. The four below are the whole menu. The app, when you want one, is Monarch Money.
Pen and paper. The CFPB post's daily log is a line for each purchase: the date, the amount, and what it was. Write it the same day. Cash is the purchase a bank app will not have, and the notebook is where that line lives. A folder of receipts does the same job if you will actually open the folder on the day you chose. The receipt is proof of the amount and the items. How to store the paper, and how long to keep it, is on how to keep track of receipts. This page does not repeat those filing rules.
A spreadsheet. One row per purchase. The columns that are enough: date, amount, category, and whether you paid with cash or a card. Sum the amount column. Sum each category. The two sums match when every row has one category. No finance app is required. What a spreadsheet program costs on its own: Not documented here. Use a sheet you already have.
Your bank's app. The CFPB post says the checking account is a way to start the week. Open the posted transactions for those seven days and copy the ones that are spending. A card purchase that posted is on that list. Cash you handed over is not, unless the only trace is an ATM withdrawal, which hides what the cash bought. A second bank is a second login. The bank app is the record of that account. It is not a category total until you sort the lines.
A budgeting app. This is the bank record, the categories, and the cash you add by hand, in one place. Monarch Money is the default app on this page. It is the paid app people compare when they want that combined record. Other apps, on spending, categories, and receipts, are in best expense tracker apps. Monarch's own pages are in the section after the example. The comparison table is the short version.
How to categorize
The CFPB post points at sorting spending into categories such as utilities, housing, eating out, and entertainment. You do not need their worksheet to use the idea. Pick a short list you will still recognize next week. For the variable spending in the example, the list is groceries, eating out, getting around, and subscriptions. Housing and the other fixed bills belong on the budget. That list is the other guide. Do not rebuild it here.
One purchase gets one category. If you file the same coffee under eating out one week and under its own line the next, the weekly totals are not comparable. A list with one category per store is too narrow to add. A single category called stuff hides the eating out. If a grocery trip also bought household supplies, the receipt is what lets you split the amount. Until you split it, the whole trip sits in one category, and you say which one.
Monarch's default categories, on a page updated September 29, 2026, include Groceries, Restaurants & Bars, and Coffee Shops. A default named Subscriptions: Not documented on that page. On Monarch, a repeating charge is a recurring item, covered below, not a default category name. Rename a default only when the new name is the same kind of spending. The article's example is a restaurant category renamed to dining out. An unrelated name, such as pet supplies on a restaurant category, should be a new category. The internal id stays, and new restaurant transactions can still land on the renamed one.
A weekly review
The CFPB post's weekly pass is the habit. Pick a day. The job is the five steps, not a new system.
- Gather the week's notes, the receipts, and the posted account activity.
- Add any cash purchase the account does not show.
- Put each line in one category from the short list.
- Add the categories. They should equal what left your hands that week, including cash.
- Mark any merchant you did not expect. That is the subscription check.
Do this before you change a budget. A week that totaled $200 is a record. Whether groceries should be a different number next month is the comparison on budget vs actuals, and it needs a plan you already wrote. If you do not have that plan yet, start with how to make a budget.
Catching subscriptions
A subscription is a merchant that charges you again. One week can show the charge. It cannot, by itself, prove the charge repeats. In the example, Thursday's streaming line is $15. Write it down. Then look at last month's statement for the same merchant, or a name close to it. The same merchant around the same day, or a similar amount that is not identical, is the pattern. The full pass, including the lists at Apple, Google Play, and in email, is on how to find and cancel subscriptions. This page does not repeat the cancel steps.
An annual charge shows up once in twelve months. A single week will miss it. When you do the first pass, pull a longer statement than the seven days in the example. A charge you already know is annual can be divided by 12 and set aside. That monthly amount is a different guide. The tracking job here is to see the charge at all.
Keeping receipts
A card line is a date, a merchant name, and an amount. The receipt is what you bought. Keep it when the category might be wrong, when the amount might include more than one kind of spending, or when you may need to return the item. The weekly review is when the receipt meets the account line. How to store the paper and the email, and how long to keep each kind, is on how to keep track of receipts.
A worked example
Example week only. These are round numbers chosen so the arithmetic is easy to check. They are not your groceries, not a budget, and not a recommendation. Seven purchases, one category each.
| Day | What | Paid | Category | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Groceries | Card | Groceries | $80 |
| Tuesday | Coffee | Cash | Eating out | $5 |
| Wednesday | Lunch | Card | Eating out | $15 |
| Thursday | Streaming | Card | Subscriptions | $15 |
| Friday | Bus | Card | Getting around | $20 |
| Saturday | Dinner | Card | Eating out | $40 |
| Sunday | Groceries | Card | Groceries | $25 |
The card lines are $80, $15, $15, $20, $40, and $25. $80 plus $15 is $95. $95 plus $15 is $110. $110 plus $20 is $130. $130 plus $40 is $170. $170 plus $25 is $195. The cash coffee is $5. $195 plus $5 is $200. That $200 is what left your hands.
Groceries are $80 plus $25, which is $105. Eating out is the $5 coffee, the $15 lunch, and the $40 dinner. $5 plus $15 is $20, and $20 plus $40 is $60. Subscriptions are $15. Getting around is $20. $105 plus $60 is $165. $165 plus $15 is $180. $180 plus $20 is $200. The categories match the week.
A bank app that only shows the card lists $195. It is $5 short, because the cash coffee never posted. A notebook or a spreadsheet that includes the $5 lists $200, and the categories add to the same $200. Skip the cash line and both the total and eating out are wrong by $5. Eating out would show $55 instead of $60. $60 minus $5 is $55.
The $15 streaming charge is one line this week. File it under subscriptions if you already know it repeats. If you do not, leave a mark on it and check last month before you treat it as a bill that will return. One row does not prove a subscription.
How the methods compare
Effort and accuracy here are what each method leaves out. They are not a score. Cost is a price only where a page states one. Monarch Money is the budgeting-app row. FYN is last, and the section after Monarch says what the pricing page actually lists.
| Method | Effort | Accuracy | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pen and paper | You write each purchase the same day. | Only the lines you wrote. A skipped cash purchase is missing. | No subscription. | A week you will finish with a pen. |
| Spreadsheet | You type each row, then sum by category. | The rows in the sheet. The sum is only those rows. | No finance-app fee. The sheet's own price is not listed here. | Adding the categories yourself. |
| Bank app | The bank lists what posted to that account. | That account only. Cash you spent is missing. | Comes with the account. Account fees are not listed here. | Seeing what already cleared. |
| Monarch Money | Connect accounts, review categories, and add cash by hand. | Imported transactions plus what you enter. Receipts match posted charges, not pending ones. | No free plan. Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. A 7-day trial. | Categories on connected accounts. |
| FYN | Photograph a receipt, forward one, or a wallet purchase logs as you pay. Bank sync is Pro. | Receipts and wallet purchases you saved. On Pro, up to 15 linked accounts. | Free is $0. Pro is $9.99 a month. Bank sync is Pro only. | Receipts first, then the bank feed on Pro. |
Monarch Money
Monarch Money is the default app if you want connected accounts, categories, and a place to add cash. The arithmetic in the example does not require it. Pen and paper holds the same seven lines. So does a spreadsheet. Monarch is the product in this comparison that imports the card lines and still lets you type the cash.
Connections. The data-provider article, updated June 9, 2026, says Monarch works with Plaid, Finicity, and MX. Monarch suggests a provider, and you can switch. The same article says a connection can be inconsistent, and that the result can be missing transactions or an old balance. The weekly review still has a job when a line did not import. In the example, a missing card line and a missing cash line are the same kind of hole: the total is short until you write the purchase in.
Categories. The default categories article, updated September 29, 2026, says categories group similar expenses, and that Monarch will attempt to categorize transactions. You can change a category on the transaction, create a rule, or review the ones that look wrong. Uncategorized cannot be disabled. Custom categories and groups are on that page. The coffee in the example can sit in Coffee Shops, which is a default, or in eating out with lunch and dinner. Pick one and keep it. The $15 streaming line does not have a default named Subscriptions on the page checked here.
Cash. The manual transactions article, updated October 21, 2026, is how the $5 coffee gets into the record. One option is a manual account you name Cash. When you spend cash, add a manual transaction, choose the category, and leave the balance toggle on so the cash balance updates. The other option is to split an ATM withdrawal into the purchases, with a category on each. Splitting does not track how much cash is left in a wallet. The same article says Monarch does not have a reconciling feature. A manual transaction is not removed when a matching transaction syncs. If you type the coffee and a card line for the same coffee also arrives, you can count it twice. When you expect a card charge to post, wait for that line.
Receipts. The receipt article, updated October 28, 2026, lets you scan, upload, or forward a receipt to [email protected]. It reads merchant, amount, and date, and line items when the receipt has them. It matches posted transactions, not pending ones. If you are still waiting for the charge to post, the article says not to create a new transaction yet, so you do not duplicate it. When a receipt covers more than one category, it may be split. The article's example is Groceries and Household. That is the split the grocery trip on this page was missing.
Subscriptions. The recurring article, updated June 29, 2026, says that when an account syncs new transactions, Monarch scans them and attempts to detect new recurring items. You can also search for a merchant and add it yourself. You can mark a merchant as not recurring. The $15 streaming line is a candidate, not a proof, until a second charge or last month's statement agrees. Whether Monarch will cancel another company's subscription for you: Not documented on that page. Canceling stays on how to find and cancel subscriptions.
Price. Read on monarch.com/pricing on October 29, 2026. There is no free plan. The pricing help, updated March 3, 2026, says Monarch only offers paid subscriptions, in US dollars, plus tax where it applies. Core is $14.99 a month, or $8.33 a month when billed $99.99 a year. Plus is $16.67 a month, billed $199.99 a year. Both plan cards say a free 7-day trial, then that price, and that a payment method is required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends. A month-to-month Plus price was not on the page. Not documented. Trial length, the annual price, and discounts are on Monarch Money pricing. A separate page asks whether Monarch Money is worth it. Other apps people look at instead are the Monarch Money alternatives.
Monarch also publishes an MCP connector, updated October 22, 2026, for Core and Plus. Read-only is the default. Write access is separate, and you allow it. That connector is a way to ask about transactions you already have. It is not the weekly add, and it is not a free plan. Data from Finicity is not available through that connector.
Where FYN fits
FYN is our product, and it is last. The comparison on this page is a habit you can run with a pen: write the lines, put each one in a category, and check that the categories equal what left. A category list, a weekly review screen, or automatic subscription detection: Not documented on the pricing page. The record that page does specify is receipts, email, wallet purchases, and, on Pro, bank transactions.
Receipt photos and emailed receipts are one monthly count, 20 a month on Free and 200 a month on Pro. Forwarding a receipt counts toward that same number. Apple Pay and Google Wallet purchases are logged as you pay, on Free and on Pro. A card charge can still wait to post. A wallet purchase is in the record as you pay it. The $5 cash coffee is still a line you enter, unless a receipt photo captured it. A free account does not sync bank accounts.
The free plan is $0. It does not expire and does not ask for a card. It includes 1 household member on Free. You can start there without linking a bank. Pro is $9.99 a month. Bank sync is Pro only, through Plaid, for up to 15 accounts. That feed is how a posted charge with no receipt still shows up, including the $15 streaming line once the account is linked. The pricing page lists unlimited household members on Pro. Everyone shares the plan's limits. The pricing FAQ says a shared member can be an owner, a member, or view-only. The household page is the longer description of those roles.
A read-only connector lets assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT read FYN data. The free plan includes 500 MCP calls a day. Pro includes 10,000 a day. The MCP docs say a free account does not sync bank accounts, so tools that read bank data return little or no data until a bank is linked. Linking a bank is not on the free plan. Monarch also publishes an MCP connector, on Core and Plus, read-only unless you allow write. Updated October 22, 2026. FYN is not the only one. The plan table is on pricing.
FAQ
What is the simplest way to track your spending?
Write down what left, the same day, and add it up once a week. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's budgeting post, June 5, 2019, calls logging your spending the heavy step, and says a week is enough to start if a month feels like too much. The same post names three tools: receipts, the checking account, or a daily log of the small purchases. A folder of receipts you review at the end of each week is the habit that post describes. On this page the four ways are a pen, a spreadsheet, your bank's app, and a budgeting app. Monarch Money is the budgeting app. The dollar amounts in the worked example are an example week, not a budget: seven purchases that add to $200, of which $5 was cash.
How often should you review what you spent?
Once a week, on a day you will keep. The June 5, 2019 CFPB post says a folder of receipts reviewed at the end of each week is one way to track as you go, and that you should update the picture when your spending habits change. The weekly job on this page is short: add any cash the account does not show, put each line in one category, and check that the categories equal what left. In the example week the categories are groceries $105, eating out $60, subscriptions $15, and getting around $20. Those four add to $200. A card-only list is $195, because the $5 cash coffee never posted. Comparing those totals with a plan you already wrote is a different page. That comparison is budget vs actuals. Writing the plan, if you do not have one, is how to make a budget.
How should you categorize spending?
Use a short list you will still recognize next week, and put each purchase in one category. The CFPB post points at sorting spending into categories such as utilities, housing, eating out, and entertainment. This page's example uses groceries, eating out, getting around, and subscriptions for the variable spending, and leaves housing on the budget guide. File the same kind of purchase in the same category every week. If a grocery trip also bought household supplies, the receipt is what lets you split the amount. Until you split it, the whole trip sits in one category. Monarch's default categories, updated September 29, 2026, include Groceries, Restaurants & Bars, and Coffee Shops. A default category named Subscriptions: Not documented on that page. Subscriptions there are a recurring list, not a default category name. Rename a Monarch default only when the new name is the same kind of spending.
How do you catch a subscription while you are tracking spending?
Write the charge down, then check whether the same merchant billed you before. One week can show the amount. It cannot, by itself, prove the charge repeats. In the example, Thursday's streaming line is $15. Look at last month for that merchant, or a name close to it. The same merchant around the same day, or a similar amount that is not identical, is the pattern. An annual charge shows up once in twelve months, so a single week misses it. Monarch's recurring article, updated June 29, 2026, says that when an account syncs, Monarch scans the new transactions and attempts to detect recurring items. You can also search for a merchant and add it, and you can mark a merchant as not recurring. Whether Monarch cancels another company's subscription for you: Not documented on that page. The cancel steps, including Apple, Google Play, and email, are on the subscriptions guide.
Is your bank app enough to track spending?
It is enough for what posted to that one account. It is not enough for cash, or for a second bank you did not open. The June 5, 2019 CFPB post says the checking account is one way to start a week. In the example, the card lines add to $195 and the cash coffee is $5. A bank app that only shows the card is $5 short of the $200 that left. The withdrawal, if you took cash from an ATM, is one line. It does not say the coffee was the thing you bought. Monarch's manual transactions article, updated October 21, 2026, is the app version of that gap: a manual cash account, or a split of the ATM withdrawal. The same article says a manual transaction is not removed when a matching one syncs, because there is no reconcile step. Add the cash line. Do not also add it again when you are still waiting on a card charge.
What does Monarch Money cost to track spending, and where does FYN fit?
Monarch Money has no free plan. On monarch.com/pricing, checked October 29, 2026, Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, shown as $8.33 a month. Plus is $199.99 a year, shown as $16.67 a month. The trial is 7 days, and a payment method is required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends. A month-to-month Plus price was not on the page. Not documented. The pricing help, updated March 3, 2026, says the plans are paid subscriptions in US dollars, plus tax where it applies. FYN is our product, and it is last. A category list, a weekly review screen, or automatic subscription detection: Not documented on the pricing page. The free plan is $0. It does not expire and does not ask for a card. It includes 1 household member on Free. Receipt photos and emailed receipts are 20 a month as one count, and 200 a month on Pro. Apple Pay and Google Wallet purchases are logged as you pay, on Free and on Pro. Pro is $9.99 a month. Bank sync is Pro only. A free account does not sync bank accounts. The pricing page lists unlimited household members on Pro. A read-only connector lets Claude or ChatGPT read the spending you saved. Monarch also publishes a connector. FYN is not the only one.
Sources
Checked . These are the pages behind the guide. A line marked Not documented is a fact the linked page does not state.
- CFPB, June 5, 2019. Logging spending is the heavy step. A week of receipts, the checking account, or a daily log is enough to start. Review a folder of receipts at the end of each week. Update the budget when spending habits change: Budgeting: How to create a budget and stick with it.
- Take-home pay, fixed bills, and one method, after you can see the spending: how to make a budget.
- Each planned category next to what you spent: budget vs actuals.
- What to keep, how long, and a weekly receipt routine: how to keep track of receipts.
- Statements, Apple, Google Play, and email, then which apps find recurring charges: how to find and cancel subscriptions.
- Expense tracker apps compared on spending, categories, receipts, and price: best expense tracker apps.
- Whether the Monarch subscription is worth paying: is Monarch Money worth it.
- Other apps people consider instead of Monarch: Monarch Money alternatives.
- Monarch Core and Plus prices, the 7-day trial, and the payment method. Core $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year ($8.33 a month). Plus $199.99 a year ($16.67 a month): monarch.com/pricing.
- Monarch pricing help, updated March 3, 2026. Paid subscriptions only. Prices are in US dollars, plus tax where it applies: Pricing.
- Trial length, annual price, and discounts, in one place: Monarch Money pricing.
- Monarch default categories, updated September 29, 2026. Groceries, Restaurants & Bars, and Coffee Shops. Uncategorized cannot be disabled. Rename a default only when the new name is the same kind of spending: Default categories.
- Monarch manual transactions, updated October 21, 2026. A manual cash account, or a split of an ATM withdrawal. No reconcile step. A manual transaction is not removed when a matching one syncs: Creating manual transactions.
- Monarch recurring expenses, updated June 29, 2026. After a sync, Monarch scans new transactions and attempts to detect recurring items. You can add a merchant, or mark one as not recurring: Tracking recurring expenses and bills.
- Monarch receipts, updated October 28, 2026. Scan, upload, or forward to [email protected]. Merchant, amount, and date. Posted transactions only, not pending. A receipt may split by category: Importing receipts.
- Monarch data providers, updated June 9, 2026. Plaid, Finicity, and MX. Monarch suggests a provider and you can switch. A connection can miss transactions: Data providers and connections.
- Monarch MCP connector, updated October 22, 2026. On Core and Plus. Read-only unless you allow write. Finicity data is not available through the connector: Monarch MCP connector.
- FYN pricing. Free is $0 and does not ask for a card. Receipts are 20 a month on Free and 200 a month on Pro. Apple Pay and Google Wallet purchases are logged as you pay. Pro is $9.99 a month. Bank sync is Pro only, up to 15 accounts. The pricing page lists 1 household member on Free and unlimited household members on Pro. A category list, a weekly review screen, or automatic subscription detection is not on that page: pricing.
- FYN household roles. An owner, a member, or view-only: household.
- What a free FYN account can and cannot read through the connector: MCP docs.