Our Budgeting Journey: From Spreadsheets to Monarch Money
Budgeting didn’t formally enter the picture for our family until 2016. That was the year E (our older daughter) was born, and the year I started my faculty job. We’d just moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest (i.e., from a low to a high cost of living city). At the time, we had over $100K in student loan debt, a new baby, and an income of about $68K. On top of that, my paychecks were irregular. I got paid 10 months out of the year (8 full paychecks, 2 partial, and then 2 months of nothing). Making sure we could cover those “nothing” months was top priority, along with paying the bills and chipping away at our loans.
Even though we were good about checking our accounts, we’d never actually tracked our spending. I’m a spreadsheet and numbers person at heart, so I opened up a fresh Google Sheet, combed through our accounts, and built out spending categories. That document became the start of a habit I’ve now kept up for almost a decade. While our budgeting process has evolved over time (and now lives inside Monarch’s app instead of a spreadsheet), the practice of regularly reviewing our finances is something I truly enjoy.
Note: This post contains referral links. If you decide to sign up through them, I may receive a small credit or discount at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog!
The Spreadsheet Years
From 2017 to early 2025, I’d sit down once a week, review our checking and credit card expenses, and plug them into our budget spreadsheet. If we overspent in a category, I’d shuffle things around on the sheet (though not in real life, everything came from the same pool of money). At the end of each month, I’d do a bigger reconciliation, sometimes moving money in from savings and sometimes putting extra funds toward savings, student loans, or retirement. Then I’d set up the next month’s sheet.
This worked great, until it didn’t. By early 2025, it felt like more of a chore than a helpful tool. Our finances hadn’t gotten more complicated; if anything, we’d loosened up on sticking to exact category limits as our income grew. Each month seemed to involve lots of shifting money between categories, and I was tired of setting up new sheets each month. Though copying and pasting a spreadsheet wasn’t difficult, anytime I wanted to tweak categories, it created more work. Our spreadsheets served us well for ~8 years, but I was ready for something easier.
Enter: Budgeting Apps
I tested two budgeting apps: YNAB and Monarch. While I liked them both, Monarch won me over with its clean, modern interface. These days, instead of weekly spreadsheet sessions, I do quick daily (or every-other-day) check-ins. Monarch auto-categorizes most transactions with rules I’ve set, so I just glance through transactions to make sure everything looks right. It typically takes under 5 minutes. At the end of the month, I do a final reconciliation.
If you’d told me a few years ago I’d be paying for a budgeting app, I would have laughed. But with a bit more breathing room in our finances, paying for a tool that makes my life easier feels like a no-brainer. If you’re curious about Monarch Money and want to try it out at a discounted rate, you can use my referral link to get 50% off your first year.
What Else We Track
Besides day-to-day spending, I keep tabs on our student loan balances and the status of our savings buckets within our high yield savings account. Also, when we’re considering a bigger purchase, like the adjustable dumbbells we recently bought (thank you Rep Fitness!), I’ll price out options and save my research. All of these things are still housed within a Google Sheet, so I haven’t fully said goodbye to spreadsheets.
I also run my own VA business and a small Etsy shop. All of my business related finances are housed in a separate spreadsheet system. Though I did test out Monarch for my business expenses, I much prefer handling it manually with a spreadsheet.
Why I’m Sharing Our Finances
Honestly? A lot of this is for me. Writing helps me think, and I like having a record to look back on. But I also find other people’s financial stories fascinating, it gives me perspective and sometimes new ideas. I imagine someone, somewhere out there might find reading about our finances fascinating as well.
Plus, it’s really interesting to see our finances change over time. Back in 2018, 44% of our spending went to housing 😫. Today, it’s closer to 30%. Progress like that keeps me motivated and reminds me why this tracking habit is worth keeping.
