Despite being an extremely broke college student, I unfortunately have zero self-control. I'm convinced I need to get myself a $7 matcha or coffee every time I step out of the house, need to treat myself to a little gift when anything slightly good happens, and have an inability to walk past a sale rack without buying something I absolutely don't need.

Unfortunately, the only way to really curb my reckless spending is to either leave no money at all in my wallet and bank account, or actually track where every single dollar goes. The former is obviously not viable, and the latter works because it serves as a horrifyingly effective reality check. There's nothing like seeing upwards of a hundred dollars spent on matcha written out in a spreadsheet to make you rethink your entire life choices.

Budget apps haven't ever really worked for me, and I know tracking everything manually in a spreadsheet sounds like the most tedious thing on the planet. So, I decided to bring the best of both worlds together: the simplicity of a spreadsheet with Claude. Somehow, this little system has done more for my spending habits than any traditional budgeting app ever did.

The goal was to build a system I'd actually use

Step 1: Stop trying to use a budgeting app

Claude is a tool I use every day, and it's reached the point where I open the tool more than I reach for Instagram. So, when I was trying to figure out what kind of system would work for this, I instantly knew the answer was Claude. I've used NotebookLM to manage my finances before, but that's only worked when I want to run some analysis and spot some trends. It's too much tedious work, and while the results end up having the "rethinking my life choices" effect, I knew the system could be better. So, I started exploring how I could simplify this chaos using Claude + a good old spreadsheet.

The idea was that I'd tell Claude when I spend some money (or when I earn some money) in completely natural language, and it'd automatically update a spreadsheet. The first step was getting Claude to build the spreadsheet itself. I didn't want a basic two-column log. Instead, I wanted something comprehensive enough that I wouldn't miss my budgeting app.

So I described what I needed (in completely natural language), and Claude generated a full workbook: a Transactions sheet, a Dashboard that updates in real time with income, expenses, net savings, and color-coded budget health per category, a Monthly Budget view for setting targets and comparing actuals, a year-at-a-glance Monthly Summary, a Savings Goals tracker that calculates exactly how much you need to save per month to hit a deadline, a Recurring Bills sheet, and a Net Worth tracker.

The Transactions sheet was the only place where you'd ever need to enter data, and the rest of the sheets pulled from Transactions automatically via formulas. You add one row to Transactions, and everything else recalculates.

Claude's Projects feature made it all work together

One Project to track it all

Frankly, the spreadsheet itself was enough to make me ditch my current budgeting system, but I wanted to take it further. Claude's Projects helped tie it all together. While setting this up, I found that there's no native way to connect Claude to Excel. I know the Claude in Excel integration exists, and I've tested it out before, but it requires Excel to be open on your computer. That's great for desk work, but it doesn't really solve the problem I was trying to solve here (which is logging an expense as I'm making a purchase). I needed something I could reach from my phone, in the moment, without opening anything other than Claude. And then it hit me: why not create a Project?

If you aren't familiar with the Claude Projects feature, it essentially lets you create a self-contained workspace where you can upload reference files, set custom instructions that persist across conversations, and start new chats that all share that same context. It felt perfect for this scenario, since I could upload the template of the spreadsheet for reference, and give it instructions upfront on what I wanted to do. This wouldn't work in a regular Claude conversation, since every conversation begins from scratch.

Here's how it looks in practice

Okay but does it actually work?

The way the system works is incredibly, incredibly simple. I open the Project chat, type something like "It's the 20th of April today. I bought matcha for XYZ amount. Spent xyz on commute," and Claude takes it from there.

For instance, using the same example, it identified both transactions, slotted the commute into the Transport category immediately, and asked me whether the matcha was from a café or store (since it needed to know whether that's Dining Out or Groceries). I said outside, and it logged both entries using openpyxl, a Python library for editing Excel files. Within seconds, it gave me back the updated sheet.

The next time I make a purchase or earn some income, I just come back to the chat, mention the date and what happened, and it picks up right where we left off. For instance, when I told it I spent 2,000 on a haircut the next day, it categorized it as Personal Care without asking, added it to the right row, and returned the file again.

I'm no longer limited to a certain platform

Since Claude is available on both my laptop (via the web or Desktop app) and phone, I can log a transaction the moment it happens. Booked flight tickets or did some online shopping on my laptop? Just open Claude. Out for lunch with friends? Just open Claude. It's no different from texting a friend, and the spreadsheet stays up to date without me ever having to manually open Excel and fill in a single row myself.