Expense-tracking applications are capable and most people stop using them within a month.
The reason is rarely the software; it is that categorising transactions is a chore with no
immediate reward. A lower-effort method that survives is worth more than a thorough one that
gets abandoned.
Track one number, once a week
The minimum viable version is a single weekly figure: the total balance across your accounts,
minus what you owe, written down by hand. No categories, no receipts, no reconciliation. One
number, same day each week, in the same place.
This sounds too crude to be useful and it works for a specific reason. The weekly direction of
that number is the only fact you genuinely need in order to know whether things are improving.
Categories explain why; direction tells you whether. Most people need the second far more
urgently than the first.
Add detail only where there is a question
When the number moves in a way you cannot explain, that is the moment to look closer — and
only at the period and account in question. This is a fraction of the work of continuous
categorisation, and it happens when you are actually curious, which is when you will follow
through.
After a few months the record becomes something no app provides as readily: a simple trend
line over a long period. That is the view that shows whether a habit changed anything, and it is
built from one minute of effort a week.
