How to Track Personal Expenses Using Excel or Notion

Managing money wisely starts with one simple habit — tracking your expenses. Whether you’re saving for a goal, cutting unnecessary costs, or just trying to understand where your salary goes each month, expense tracking is the foundation of financial control.

Fortunately, you don’t need expensive software to do it. You can easily track personal expenses using Excel or Notion, two of the most powerful (and free!) tools available today.

Let’s explore exactly how you can set them up and use them effectively.

💡 Why Tracking Expenses Matters

Before we get into the tools, let’s understand why tracking your expenses is essential:

1. Awareness: You’ll know exactly where your money goes.

2. Control: Helps you avoid overspending on non-essentials.

3. Goal Setting: Easier to save for vacations, investments, or emergencies.

4. Financial Growth: You can identify spending leaks and redirect that money toward wealth-building.

In short, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

🧾 Option 1: Track Expenses Using Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the easiest and most flexible ways to manage personal finances. You can create a simple, powerful expense tracker without any coding knowledge.

🪜 Step-by-Step: Creating an Expense Tracker in Excel

Step 1: Create Columns for Your Data

Start with these basic columns:

• Date

• Category (e.g., Food, Rent, Transport, Bills)

• Description

• Payment Method

• Amount

• Notes

📊 Tip: You can color-code each category (e.g., green for essentials, red for non-essentials) for better visibility.

Step 2: Categorize Your Expenses

Define categories that fit your lifestyle:

• Needs: Rent, groceries, utilities, healthcare

• Wants: Entertainment, shopping, dining out

• Savings & Investments: Mutual funds, SIPs, fixed deposits

Once you categorize properly, Excel can summarize your data automatically.

Step 3: Use Excel Formulas

Leverage built-in formulas to analyze your spending:

• =SUM() – Total monthly expenses

• =AVERAGE() – Find average daily or weekly spend

• =SUMIF() – Calculate total for a specific category (e.g., “Groceries”)

📈 Example:
=SUMIF(B:B,"Food",E:E)
This formula totals all expenses under the “Food” category.

Step 4: Create Charts and Dashboards

Go to Insert → Chart to visualize your spending trends.
Use:

• Pie charts for category-wise breakdown

• Line charts for monthly spending patterns

• Bar charts for comparison across categories

You can also create a monthly dashboard summarizing:

• Total income

• Total expenses

• Savings

• Spending ratio

Step 5: Automate with Templates

Don’t want to build from scratch?
You can use free Excel templates like:

• Personal Budget Planner

• Monthly Expense Tracker

• Income vs. Expense Sheet

These templates come pre-formatted with formulas and charts, making tracking effortless.

🧠 Option 2: Track Expenses Using Notion

If you prefer a modern, visually appealing, and mobile-friendly approach, Notion is an amazing alternative.

Notion combines the flexibility of Excel with the power of databases and automation — perfect for anyone who likes simplicity with style.

🪜 Step-by-Step: Creating an Expense Tracker in Notion

Step 1: Create a New Page

Click “+ New Page” → “Table Database”.
Rename it to something like “Personal Expense Tracker”.

Step 2: Add Columns (Properties)

Add the following columns:

• Date → Date property

• Category → Select property (e.g., Food, Rent, Bills, etc.)

• Amount → Number property

• Payment Method → Text or Select property

• Notes → Text property

🧩 You can even add a “Type” column to separate Expenses from Income for a full budgeting system.

Step 3: Add Filters and Views

Create multiple views for better organization:

• “This Month” – Filter by the current month

• “By Category” – Group transactions by expense type

• “Monthly Summary” – Roll-up of total spent per month

This helps you instantly see how much you’re spending in real time.

Step 4: Add Formulas for Automation

Notion formulas can do simple calculations like totals and comparisons.
For instance, use:
sum(prop("Amount"))
to calculate your total expenses for a selected time period.

You can also add a Progress Bar to visualize how much of your monthly budget you’ve used!

Step 5: Use or Customize Free Templates

Notion has tons of free budget and finance templates.
Try searching for:

• “Simple Expense Tracker”

• “Personal Finance Dashboard”

• “Budget Planner”

You can duplicate and customize them to match your goals, color scheme, and currency.

📊 Excel vs. Notion: Which Should You Use?

If you love numbers and charts → go for Excel.
If you prefer simplicity and design → Notion is your best choice.

💬 Bonus Tip: Track Automatically with AI

Want to go one step further?
You can use AI-powered tools like Tiller Money, Notion AI, or ChatGPT Code Interpreter to automatically import, categorize, and analyze your expenses.

These tools can read your bank statements, create reports, and even predict upcoming bills — saving you hours every month.

Tracking your personal expenses isn’t about restricting yourself — it’s about understanding your habits and making informed decisions.

Whether you use Excel for precision or Notion for simplicity, consistency is key.
Start small: log every expense daily, review your total at month-end, and slowly build the habit of mindful spending.

Remember: financial freedom starts with financial awareness.

So, open that spreadsheet or Notion page today — and take the first step toward smarter money management.