QUESTION: How to assess where your salary goes: a simple 30-minute audit?

Assessing where exactly your salary goes often seems like a complex and tedious task, but it can be solved in just thirty minutes with a simple audit. This does not require complex accounting software; having access to online banking and a desire to understand your financial behavior is enough.

As a first step, download bank statements for all your cards for the last full month. Transfer the data into a simple spreadsheet or group the expenses directly in the bank app by category and specific stores. The main goal of this stage is to see the real picture without embellishment or self-deception.

Then, make a list of the top 10 largest expenses from the past month and carefully review your regular subscriptions. It often turns out that forgotten subscription services, grab-and-go coffee, or spontaneous restaurant food orders consume the lion's share of the budget. When these figures are lined up in one clear list, it becomes obvious why the money runs out ahead of time.

The data obtained serves as the foundation for creating a new budget. You will immediately understand which unnecessary expenses can be abandoned today without compromising your quality of life. Regularly conducting such a half-hour audit once a month allows you to notice budget leaks in time and keep your finances under reliable control.