Elizabeth Ayoola

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I don't want to blame it on my ADHD, but my ADHD.

And I'm Elizabeth Ayola.

This episode, we're going to be exploring how to actually make budgeting apps track your expenses.

And here's our listener's question, which comes from a text message.

Hey, nerds.

Tools such as Monarch, YNAB, et cetera, are great for creating a budget.

However, for years, I've struggled to actually track expenses against that budget.

A big reason for this is many of my family's expenses come from big box stores like Costco, Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc.

that consistently involve commingling purchases of groceries, clothing, toys, and other budget categories.

Any suggestions on how to accurately split these changes to get an accurate picture of spending?

The only way I have discovered around this is to log itemized receipts by hand, which becomes extremely cumbersome and often leads to abandoning the budget.

Thanks.

Same.

But I do think budgeting down to the penny is very helpful for people who are like, where is all my paycheck going and who are trying to get their budget together.

OK, so now based on the three apps that you have told us about, thank you for getting all the lowdown on all three of them.

Which one would you say makes what the listener is trying to achieve easiest?