i thought i dont spend much… but my balance says something else

I genuinely don’t know where my money goes.

Like in my head I feel I don’t spend that much, but then I check my balance and I’m like wait what?

So this week I tried to fix it.

Thought I’ll finally start tracking everything properly.

Downloaded a couple of expense apps. Felt motivated for like 2 days.

Then it became a headache.

Every time I spent money I had to open the app, pick a category, enter the amount, sometimes add notes. It just felt like extra work for something I already don’t enjoy doing tbh.

Half the time I’d just think “I’ll add it later” and then obviously forget.

So yeah, stopped again lol.

Then I had this random thought, why am I even using a separate app for this?

I’m on WhatsApp all day anyway.

So I made a very basic thing for myself, just calling it sidenote for now, where I just send a message like
“200 snacks”
“500 petrol”

and it logs it.

No categories, no setup, nothing.

It’s only been a few days but I’m actually sticking to it, which is new for me.

Not saying it’s some big solution or anything, it just feels less annoying.

How are you guys tracking expenses? Or do you also just ignore it and hope for the best?