Best way to track monthly expenses without spending hours on spreadsheets?

Honestly? A simple notes app and 5 minutes at the end of each day. I tried YNAB, Mint, Personal Capital, spreadsheets... nothing stuck for more than a month. Then I started doing this: **The dead simple method:** 1. End of each day, open notes app 2. List what you spent money on that day 3. That is it No categories. No budgets. No syncing bank accounts. Just a quick daily habit. After a month, scroll back and you will see patterns clear as day. Once you see where your money goes, THEN maybe try a proper budgeting app.

I use a simple Google Sheet with just 3 columns: Date, Amount, What. Every purchase gets logged right when it happens (takes 10 seconds on my phone). At the end of the month I add it up and categorize roughly. The key insight: do not track to budget, track to understand. I am not trying to limit myself, I am trying to see where money actually goes. That awareness alone changed my spending habits more than any budget ever did.