If you’re familiar with my YouTube channel, you already know I love teaching people how to build simple spreadsheet systems that actually work—like custom budgets and expense trackers.
But I don’t just preach this stuff; I actually use these exact tools to manage my own money. I walk my talk.
This year, I set out to build my most intentional, optimized and effective budget system yet. Now that I’m a handful of months into using it, I’m sharing the biggest lessons I’ve learned on what it takes to create a system that truly helps you move the needle with money.
And I’m also peeling back the curtain a bit, to show how my system is set up to help me succeed. If you’ve ever wanted to build your own expense tracking or budget sheet system – and especially if you want to build a Google Sheets budget specifically – then you’re in the right place.
p.s. Be sure to check out the linked video at the end if you’d like to see my setup for yourself!
3 Key Lessons from Tracking My Expenses
1) The simpler, the better.
I’ve tried flashy budgeting apps, but they often felt too restrictive for how I wanted to make sense of my finances. I’ve also tried building super complex spreadsheets and dashboards (using advanced data visualization tools) because I thought I needed an extraordinary amount of detail to make real progress.
But what I ultimately landed on is the sweet spot in-between. Simple tools that are easy to use will always win out over complex, ‘perfect’ systems. A simple Google Sheets budget is much more likely to stand the test of time, because it’s actually easy to stick with.
2) “Automate” where it makes sense.
This doesn’t mean that you need to have a fully self-functioning AI-powered spreadsheet. But think of automation as the list of small hacks you put together, that ultimately save you time or cognitive energy.
Meaning you want to put in place things that will help you either do less or think less. Because spending time or brainpower on an arduous task will make it feel like a drag, and just gives you more reason to avoid it.
For me, my big roadblock was data entry.I realized that manually logging into all my online accounts just to export my transactions (to then copy and paste into my spreadsheet) was making me dread doing my financials each month. (I didn’t mind this as much back when I only had 1 or 2 accounts to worry about). Figuring out a way to pull in my transactions into a single file with just a few clicks was a game changer.
3) Zoom in, and out.
Expense tracking is a good way to stay on top of your spending in real-time. But it’s also a great a way to form the bigger picture of your financial situation.
In addition to tracking how much I make and spend each month, I also track how my income and spending looks across months. This gives me immediate visibility into months where I did a great job saving, months where I may have overspent, and where I can try to make up the difference in current or future months. That kind of nimbleness and foresight is what allows you to drive your financial picture, instead of letting it drive you.
Now it’s your turn. Go see it in action.
Want to learn more about my system? Check out the linked video below (and follow the links in the video description on Youtube to begin building on your own).
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