# Tracking a month without a spreadsheet habit

> See where the money actually went, from a month of card payments.

- Course: [Personal Finance: Budget, Safety Cushion, Debt and Investing](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance.md)
- Module: Where does my money go?
- Lesson 1/32, ~20 min
- Source: https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/tracking-a-month

## Where you work

**Alex Tutor:** Welcome to the course. This time there's no company: we're working with one household's money. Sam coordinates customer support at Klasna, an online tutoring school. He's married with a young child, the family lives on two salaries, and somehow the money never quite lasts.

**Alex Tutor:** You'll go through Sam's numbers with me and help him decide what to change; later we'll meet Dana, a tutor whose income jumps around. Over the course you'll build a whole money plan: spending, a cushion, debt, savings, investing, protection. Today: where one month's money went.

## Gone before payday

**Sam:** I don't spend on anything special. Rent, kindergarten, food, that's it. Yet every month the money's gone before payday and we finish on the credit card. Where does it go?

**Alex Tutor:** Let's not guess. First a quick test: how much do you think your family spent from 5 September to 4 October?

**Sam:** Rent 16,000, kindergarten 4,500, food maybe 10,000, plus bits and pieces. About 50,000? We earn 56,000 together, so it should fit.

**Sofia:** Why from the 5th and not from 1 September?

**Alex Tutor:** Because Sam and his partner are both paid on the 5th. Track one full **pay cycle**, payday to payday: that's the stretch the money has to last. And take it from the card history, not from memory, which keeps big, rare payments and drops small daily ones.

**Dataset (CSV):** [Sam's family account: every payment of one pay cycle](https://productovi.com/datasets/personal-finance/tracking-a-month/sam-september-transactions.csv)

5 September to 4 October 2026, one row per payment, amounts in UAH. Both salaries arrive on the 5th; on that morning the account held 300 UAH.

- `date`: Payment date
- `category`: The bank's category, e.g. groceries, taxi, food_delivery
- `description`: What the payment was for
- `amount_uah`: Amount paid, UAH

**Alex Tutor:** Sam has exported the cycle: 86 payments from the family account. Before sorting anything, one number: the total. Add up the whole amount column.

> **Exercise:** Use Sam's card history. How much did the family **spend in total** from 5 September to 4 October?

## What the cycle really cost

**Sofia:** 62,858 UAH. That's almost 13,000 more than Sam's guess, and more than the family earns.

**Alex Tutor:** Now the whole cycle. On payday morning the account held 300 UAH, then 31,000 + 25,000 = 56,000 came in. That's 56,300 to live on. Minus 62,858, the cycle ended **6,558 UAH** short.

**Balance at the end of each day, UAH**

| Day | Balance |
| --- | --- |
| 05.09 | 39125 |
| 06.09 | 34560 |
| 07.09 | 30781 |
| 08.09 | 28936 |
| 09.09 | 26731 |
| 10.09 | 26102 |
| 11.09 | 24102 |
| 12.09 | 23807 |
| 13.09 | 23588 |
| 14.09 | 18463 |
| 15.09 | 18463 |
| 16.09 | 18064 |
| 17.09 | 14009 |
| 18.09 | 14009 |
| 19.09 | 11250 |
| 20.09 | 9860 |
| 21.09 | 9610 |
| 22.09 | 8121 |
| 23.09 | 8121 |
| 24.09 | 6441 |
| 25.09 | 3397 |
| 26.09 | 3012 |
| 27.09 | 2022 |
| 28.09 | 552 |
| 29.09 | -133 |
| 30.09 | -3118 |
| 01.10 | -4888 |
| 02.10 | -6303 |
| 03.10 | -6428 |
| 04.10 | -6558 |

*Starts at 300 + 56,000 on 5 September; below zero from 29 September, the credit card covers the rest.*

**Alex Tutor:** It went below zero on 29 September, six days before payday. Everything after that went on the credit card.

**Sam:** So it's not one bad week at the end. We overspend all month and only notice on the 29th.

**Sofia:** 86 lines is a lot to read. How do we see where it went?

**Alex Tutor:** Group them. The bank already tagged each payment: 18 categories. That's plenty; by hand, 8–10 would do. You want to know where the money went, not which café.

**Dataset (CSV):** [The same cycle, totalled by category](https://productovi.com/datasets/personal-finance/tracking-a-month/sam-september-by-category.csv)

18 categories, 62,858 UAH in total. The kind column comes up in the next lesson.

- `category`: The bank's category
- `kind`: essential or flexible
- `total_uah`: Total for the cycle, UAH

> **Exercise:** Look at the totals by category. Which category took the **most money after rent**?

## What felt big and what was big

**Sam:** Groceries at 12,425, fine, there are three of us. What hurt this month was our kid's autumn jacket: 2,300 in one go. That's our leak.

**Alex Tutor:** It's the biggest single flexible purchase, so memory kept it. Now count what nobody remembers. Food delivery: 10 orders, 4,205 UAH. Taxi: 12 rides, 2,195. Coffee to go: 19 cups, 1,395.

**Sofia:** Delivery and taxi alone come to 6,400. That's almost three jackets.

**Alex Tutor:** Add four family dinners out: 4,345. None felt big, at 925 to 1,365 each. A big purchase is one decision you notice; a habit is dozens you don't.

**Alex Tutor:** This isn't a verdict on delivery or coffee; they may be worth it to Sam. The point is to see their real size before deciding.

> **Exercise:** Put these categories in order by how much the family spent on them in the cycle, **largest first**.

**Sam:** The jacket won't repeat next month, though. The delivery will.

**Alex Tutor:** Exactly. A seasonal purchase can be planned for by setting a little aside monthly. Habits repeat every cycle, so they shape the total.

**Sofia:** So the question isn't "what was the biggest payment?" but "what adds up to the most?"

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. Rank categories by their totals, not by the size of single payments.

> **Exercise:** **True or false:** the child's jacket (2,300 UAH) was the family's biggest flexible leak this cycle.

## Tracking that doesn't need a habit

**Sam:** Honestly, I won't fill in a spreadsheet every evening. I tried once. It lasted four days.

**Alex Tutor:** You don't need to. Once a cycle, on payday, total the card history by category. Twenty minutes a month.

**Alex Tutor:** One blind spot: cash. Sam withdrew 2,000 on 11 September, and nobody knows what it bought. When you pay cash, add a line to a phone note.

**Sofia:** And the categories: keep the bank's or make my own?

**Alex Tutor:** Keep the bank's, fix the wrong ones, merge the tiny ones. Don't split further: 40 categories turn tracking into a hobby nobody keeps up.

> **Exercise:** Which of these rules make tracking useful **and** easy to keep up? Choose all that apply.

## Your turn: what Sam tracks next

**Sam:** OK, I'm convinced. What exactly do I watch next cycle, so we don't end up 6,500 short again?

**Sofia:** Delivery and taxi, for a start. And whatever the cash goes on.

**Alex Tutor:** Good start. One more marker: the day the balance hits zero. If it moves from the 29th towards payday, something is working.

**Alex Tutor:** Write it for Sam in a few sentences: the period, what to track, which numbers to watch and why.

> **Exercise:** Sam asks: "What exactly do I track next cycle?" Write him a short plan (3–5 sentences): the period, where the numbers come from, which categories and numbers to watch, and why. Use this cycle's figures.

> **Key ideas**
>
> - Track one full **pay cycle**, payday to payday, from the card history, not from memory. Sam guessed about 50,000 UAH; the history says **62,858**.
> - Compare with what came in: 300 + 56,000 = 56,300 against 62,858, so the cycle ended **6,558 UAH** short and the balance went below zero on 29 September, six days before payday.
> - A handful of categories with totals is enough: the question is where the money went, not which shop.
> - Rank by category totals, not single payments. The 2,300 UAH jacket felt biggest; delivery and taxi together cost 6,400.
> - Once a cycle is enough. Log cash in a phone note, or it disappears from the picture.

**Alex Tutor:** Next time we turn these totals into a spending plan: essentials, saving and money for the things you enjoy.

- Next lesson: [Spending plan: needs, wants and fun money](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/spending-plan.md)

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