How I Finally Got My Spending Under Control with an App

For a long time, I had what I'd call "vague financial anxiety." I wasn't in crisis. I was paying my bills. But I had this constant, low-level feeling that I wasn't really in control of where my money was going.

If you know that feeling — where you check your bank balance and it's always a little lower than you expected — this one's for you.

The Spreadsheet Phase

Like a lot of people, I started with spreadsheets. I'd download my bank transactions, categorize everything in Google Sheets, and stare at the numbers trying to feel something useful.

It worked for about two weeks. Then life happened, I fell behind on updating it, and by month three I had a spreadsheet full of guilt and no actual insight into my spending.

The problem wasn't willpower. It was friction. Every time I wanted to understand my finances, I had to do 20 minutes of data entry first. That's not sustainable for most people, and it definitely wasn't sustainable for me.

What Actually Changed

In late 2023, a friend mentioned she'd been using YNAB and it had "changed how she thinks about money." I'd heard this before from YNAB users — they're a little evangelical about it — but she was the third person I trusted to say the same thing, so I figured it was worth trying.

I'm not going to pretend it was instant. The first two weeks were frustrating. YNAB uses a "zero-based budgeting" approach, which means every dollar you have gets assigned a specific job. It sounds simple, but it requires you to actively decide where your money goes before you spend it.

That was the part that changed things for me. Instead of looking at my spending after the fact and feeling bad about it, I was making decisions up front. It shifted my relationship with money from reactive to proactive.

The Three Things That Made It Stick

Looking back, here's what made the difference:

1. Automation where it mattered. I set up automatic imports from my bank accounts. No more manual data entry. Transactions showed up, I categorized them (which takes 30 seconds when you do it daily), and I moved on.

2. A weekly check-in habit. Every Sunday morning with my coffee, I spend about five minutes looking at my budget for the upcoming week. It's not a big event — it's just a quick scan. But it keeps things from drifting.

3. Letting go of perfection. I overspent my grocery budget every single month for the first four months. Instead of feeling like I'd failed, I adjusted the budget to match reality. That was a mental shift — the budget is a tool, not a report card.

Where I Am Now

It's been over two years, and I still use YNAB weekly. I'm not going to claim it transformed my life overnight or that I never stress about money. Denver isn't cheap — I know that firsthand — and there are months when things are tighter than I'd like.

But the vague anxiety is gone. I know exactly where my money is going, and more importantly, I'm the one deciding where it goes. That shift — from passive to active — was worth more than any specific dollar amount I've saved.

What I'd Tell Someone Starting Out

If you're where I was — not in crisis, but never quite in control — here's what I'd suggest:

Pick one app and commit to it for 30 days. Not a spreadsheet, not a mental budget — an actual tool that connects to your accounts and shows you the numbers.

Don't try to optimize everything at once. Start by just seeing where your money goes for a month. Awareness alone changes behavior more than you'd expect.

And if you overspend on something, don't quit. Adjust and keep going. The goal isn't a perfect budget — it's a budget that tells you the truth.

If you're curious about which apps might be a good fit, I put together a breakdown of the best AI budgeting apps I've actually used. That might be a good next step.