Start with what you know
Look at last month's bank statement. That's it. No spreadsheet needed. Just see what came in and what went out.
You don't need a fancy system or a degree in finance. Your bank already tracked everything for you. Open your online banking, look at last month, and write down two numbers: total income and total spending.
If spending is less than income, you're already ahead of most people. If it's more, don't panic — now you know, and that's the first step.
The 3-bucket method
Everything falls into 3 buckets: Bills (rent, utilities, subscriptions), Needs (groceries, gas, insurance), and Wants (dining out, entertainment, shopping). Don't overthink the categories.
Seriously, that's all you need to start. Three buckets. Go through last month's transactions and drop each one into a bucket. You'll immediately see where the money is going.
Most people are surprised by how much lands in the Wants bucket. That's not a bad thing — it's just information. And information is power when it comes to your money.
💡 Pro tip: The 5-minute start
Download your bank's CSV export, paste it into Ambit's free tier, and you'll see your spending breakdown in literally 5 minutes. No sign-up required.
Your bank probably has a "Download transactions" or "Export" button somewhere in your online banking. Grab last month's data as a CSV file, open Ambit, and import it. Done.
The dashboard will instantly show you your spending by category, your biggest expenses, and your balance trend. Zero setup, zero cost, zero excuses.
