I Tracked Every Expense for 30 Days Using a Notion Template — Here's What I Found
Most people have no idea where their money goes. I was one of them.
Last month I committed to tracking every single expense for 30 days — coffees, subscriptions, impulse buys, everything — using a simple Notion setup.
The results surprised me.
The Setup (5 Minutes to Start)
I created a simple Notion database with these fields:
- Date
- Amount (€)
- Category (Food, Transport, Entertainment, Shopping, Subscriptions, Health, Other)
- Payment method (card, cash, transfer)
- Optional note
That's it. No fancy formulas to start. Just capture every expense as it happens.
Week 1: The Shock Phase
Total spent: €312
Breakdown:
- Groceries: €87
- Restaurants/takeout: €94 ← I thought this would be €30
- Coffee: €31 ← Daily flat white adds up fast
- Subscriptions: €52 (found 2 I forgot about)
- Transport: €28
- Other: €20
The coffee number hit different when I annualized it: €1,116/year on coffee.
Week 2: Pattern Recognition
Once I had 7+ days of data, patterns emerged:
The "small amounts" trap: My biggest category wasn't what I expected. Dozens of €5-15 purchases across apps, games, impulse buys totaled €67. None of them felt significant in the moment.
The subscription audit: I was paying for:
- Netflix (using it)
- Spotify (using it)
- A VPN I haven't opened in 8 months
- A fitness app I used twice in January
- Two SaaS tools I switched away from
Immediate cancellations: €21/month saved (€252/year)
Week 3: The Behavioral Shift
Something interesting happened: just knowing I was tracking changed my behavior.
Before tracking: "I'll get an Uber, it's fine."
During tracking: "Wait, I've already spent €28 on transport this week."
I wasn't restricting myself artificially — I was making informed decisions.
Week 3 total: €198 (vs €312 in week 1)
Week 4: Building the Budget Formula
With real data, I could finally build an honest budget:
Actual monthly spending baseline: €847
Breakdown:
- Housing: €650 (fixed)
- Food (groceries): €180
- Restaurants: €120 (reduced from €188)
- Coffee: €25 (reduced — batch brewing at home)
- Transport: €60
- Subscriptions: €31 (after cuts)
- Personal care: €40
- Entertainment: €50
- Buffer: €100
- Savings target: €300
Total budget: €1,556/month
This was the first budget I'd built on actual data rather than optimistic guesses.
The Notion Formula That Changed Everything
Once I had 2 weeks of data, I added a formula to calculate monthly projections:
Projected monthly = (total to date / days tracked) × 30
Seeing "at this rate you'll spend €1,847 this month" was sobering — and motivating.
5 Practical Takeaways
1. The first week is always the most expensive. You're capturing habits you've normalized.
2. Subscriptions are the silent killers. Do a full audit every quarter. Cancel anything you haven't used in 30 days.
3. Restaurants and takeout are usually double what you think. Budget accordingly.
4. Tracking ≠ restricting. It's about awareness. Spend on what matters, eliminate what doesn't.
5. Annualize everything. €5/week coffee sounds fine. €260/year makes you reconsider.
What I Built at the End
After the 30 days, I had:
- A realistic baseline of my actual spending
- A budget I could actually stick to
- 3 subscriptions cancelled (saving €252/year)
- An ongoing habit of logging expenses (takes 30 seconds per transaction)
The total savings from this exercise: ~€200/month — mostly from subscription cuts and conscious restaurant choices.
Getting Started
You don't need a complex system. Here's the minimum viable tracker:
- Open Notion (free)
- Create a database: Date | Amount | Category | Note
- Log every expense for 7 days — don't change behavior yet, just capture
- Review at day 7 — the patterns will be obvious
- Identify one category to cut or optimize
The goal isn't perfection. It's awareness.
Want a complete personal finance OS in Notion? The Freelancer OS template includes a finance tracker, income dashboard, and expense categories pre-built — ready to use in 5 minutes. Also check the Notion Habit Tracker for building the daily logging habit.
Top comments (0)