How I Tracked My Expenses and Cut Down 20% Waste — Without Giving Up Chai or Zomato!
Let me start with a confession: I used to feel broke by the 20th of every month… even when I hadn’t done anything too crazy.
Sound familiar?
Between Swiggy orders, weekend shopping, UPI tips, and random Amazon “essentials” — I was bleeding money in ₹100s and ₹500s without realizing it.
Then one day, my cousin said:
“Bro, check your monthly spend on PhonePe. You’ll faint.”
He wasn’t wrong. I fainted — metaphorically.
That was my wake-up call. I decided to track every single rupee I spent for 30 days. The results?
➡ I found I was wasting 20% of my monthly income on stuff I didn’t even remember buying.
➡ I built better money habits — without living like a saint.
Here’s exactly how I did it — and how you can too.
🧠 Step 1: Awareness Is 80% of the Battle
I didn’t start with fancy apps.
I used good ol’ Google Sheets and this free Indian app called Walnut — it auto-detects expenses via SMS.
I categorized my spends into:
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Food (Zomato, Swiggy, snacks)
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Travel (Ola, Uber, fuel)
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Impulse (Myntra, Nykaa, Amazon)
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Subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify)
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Essentials (rent, bills, groceries)
After 30 days, I was SHOCKED:
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₹3,500 on food delivery 😳
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₹1,800 on random Amazon buys
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₹999 Netflix even though I wasn’t watching!
That’s ₹6,299 I could’ve saved or invested.
📉 Step 2: My Simple 3-Rule Spending Filter
Once I saw where the money was going, I created 3 desi filters:
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“Ek aur chahiye kya?”
If I already had something similar (like 4 white t-shirts), I didn’t buy more. -
“Kya yeh 2x khushi dega?”
Will it give me joy twice the price? If not, skip. -
“Agar cash me dena padta toh?”
Swiping UPI is painless. But imagining handing over actual ₹500 made me rethink.
These questions cut 20% of my impulsive spends without me even feeling deprived.
📲 Step 3: I Automated My Savings — Desi Style
I created a separate SBI account just for savings.
Every 1st of the month, I set an auto-transfer of ₹5,000 from my salary account.
I called it “Nikal gaya paisa account” — because once it’s gone, it’s mentally gone.
No temptations. No guilt.
🪙 Bonus: Small Wins That Added Up Big
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Made chai at home instead of ordering ₹120 cold brew ☕
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Unsubscribed from 2 unused apps → saved ₹1,500/month
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Shopped from local vendors instead of branded stores
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Started buying clothes only in end-of-season sales
Result? ₹6,000+ saved every month = ₹72,000 a year!
💡 Final Thoughts
I'm not a financial guru. I still love weekend biryani and tech gadgets.
But cutting out the 20% waste — the “leaks” I didn’t even notice — made me feel richer, more in control, and less anxious.
If you’ve ever felt “Where did my salary go?” — this method is your fix.
No guilt. No extreme budgeting. Just smart tweaks.
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