See where your money went last month, in 10 minutes
Paste last month's transactions and get a spending table by category, a list of every subscription you pay for, and the 3 changes that would save you the most.
No. This job works with a single prompt in any free AI chat app (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok). An agent only helps if you want it done automatically every day, straight from your accounts. We haven't tested agents on this job yet.
What you need
- Any AI chat app. The free plan is enough for one month of transactions.
- Last month's transactions from your bank app or a downloaded statement (CSV or copied text).
- Your take-home pay for the month.
How to use it
Download your transactions
In your bank app, export last month as CSV or copy the list of transactions. Date, description, and amount are all you need.
Remove private details
Delete account numbers, card numbers, and your address before you paste anything.
Copy the prompt
Click Copy prompt, paste it into a new chat, and fill in your take-home pay.
Paste and send
Paste your transactions under the last line. You get a table, a subscription list, and 3 savings ideas with dollar amounts.
Copy-paste setup
Act as a friendly, no-judgment budgeting coach. Below is a list of my transactions from last month (date, description, amount). My take-home pay last month was [AMOUNT]. Please: 1. Put every expense into one category: Housing, Groceries, Eating out, Transport, Bills & utilities, Subscriptions, Shopping, Health, or Other. Show a table with each category, the total, and the % of my take-home pay. Biggest first. 2. List every recurring subscription or membership you can find, with its monthly cost. Point out any that overlap or that I might have forgotten about. 3. Tell me how much was left over (take-home pay minus expenses). 4. Give me the 3 changes that would save the most money next month, with the estimated monthly saving for each. Base them only on my actual transactions. 5. Double-check all your math before answering. If a transaction is unclear, put it in Other and tell me which one. Transactions: [PASTE HERE. Remove account and card numbers first.]
We ran this prompt on the example below. Text in [BRACKETS] is what you replace.
What we got
The example we used: 35 transactions from a made-up September, take-home pay $4,200
Take-home pay: $4,200 09/01 RENT PAYMENT - OAKWOOD APTS $1,450.00 09/01 NETFLIX.COM $15.49 09/02 KROGER #412 $86.32 09/03 SHELL OIL 5521 $48.10 09/03 STARBUCKS #2231 $6.85 09/04 DOORDASH*CHIPOTLE $24.67 09/05 SPOTIFY USA $11.99 09/05 AMAZON MKTPLACE $42.18 09/06 PLANET FITNESS $24.99 09/07 STARBUCKS #2231 $7.25 09/08 DUKE ENERGY $112.40 09/09 KROGER #412 $104.57 09/10 UBER EATS $31.40 09/11 HULU $18.99 09/12 VERIZON WIRELESS $85.00 09/12 CVS PHARMACY $23.14 09/14 SHELL OIL 5521 $51.75 09/15 AMAZON PRIME $14.99 09/15 TARGET T-1187 $67.89 09/16 DOORDASH*THAI BASIL $38.22 09/17 STARBUCKS #2231 $6.85 09/18 KROGER #412 $92.06 09/19 XFINITY INTERNET $70.00 09/20 APPLE.COM/BILL $2.99 09/21 DISNEY PLUS $15.99 09/22 UBER EATS $27.55 09/23 GEICO AUTO $128.00 09/24 AMAZON MKTPLACE $29.99 09/25 KROGER #412 $78.43 09/26 OLIVE GARDEN $54.30 09/27 PEACOCK $10.99 09/28 SHELL OIL 5521 $46.20 09/29 STARBUCKS #2231 $7.25 09/30 DOORDASH*PANDA EXPRESS $21.80 09/30 ZELLE TO MARCUS $60.00
1. Where your money went
| Category | Total | % of take-home |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $1,450.00 | 34.5% |
| Groceries | $361.38 | 8.6% |
| Transport | $274.05 | 6.5% |
| Bills & utilities | $267.40 | 6.4% |
| Eating out | $226.14 | 5.4% |
| Shopping | $140.06 | 3.3% |
| Subscriptions | $116.42 | 2.8% |
| Other | $60.00 | 1.4% |
| Health | $23.14 | 0.6% |
| Total | $2,918.59 | 69.5% |
Transport includes gas ($146.05) and Geico car insurance ($128.00). Bills & utilities is Duke Energy, Verizon, and Xfinity.
2. Subscriptions and memberships ($116.42 a month)
- Planet Fitness: $24.99
- Hulu: $18.99
- Disney Plus: $15.99
- Netflix: $15.49
- Amazon Prime: $14.99
- Spotify: $11.99
- Peacock: $10.99
- Apple.com/bill: $2.99
Overlap: you pay for 4 video streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Peacock), $61.46 a month together.
Easy to forget: the $2.99 Apple charge is often iCloud storage or an app subscription. Check it in your Apple ID settings.
3. What was left over
$4,200.00 minus $2,918.59 = $1,281.41 left over (30.5% of your pay). That's a healthy month.
4. The 3 changes that save the most
- Cook 3 of your 5 delivery meals at home: save about $56. You spent $143.64 on 5 DoorDash and Uber Eats orders (about $28.73 each). Three home meals at roughly $10 each instead saves about $56.
- Keep 2 streaming services, pause the others: save about $30. Dropping Hulu and Peacock saves $29.98. You can rejoin any month you want to watch something.
- Set a $100 monthly cap for Amazon and Target: save about $40. You spent $140.06 across 3 shopping trips.
Together that's about $126 a month, or roughly $1,500 a year.
Unclear transactions
- Zelle to Marcus, $60.00: put in Other. If this was a shared bill or rent split, move it to that category.
Our verdict
- We checked every total with a calculator. All category sums, percentages, and the $1,281.41 left over are correct.
- It found all 8 subscriptions, including the small $2.99 Apple charge, and spotted the 4 overlapping streaming services.
- The savings ideas use real numbers from the statement, not generic advice. The delivery estimate assumes about $10 of groceries per home meal, and it says so.
Which app to use
Any of the four free plans works for one month of transactions. If you paste a long statement, a free plan may cut you off: one ChatGPT Free message fits about 12 pages of text. We haven't compared the four apps side by side on this guide yet.
Watch out for
- Never paste account numbers, card numbers, or login details. The descriptions and amounts are enough.
- AI can make math mistakes on long lists. The prompt asks it to double-check, but compare the total with your bank's total.
- This is a starting point for a budget, not financial advice.