How I Spend My Money

It was the first day of a family trip to Naples, Italy. We’d just landed, bought bus tickets, and were on our way to the rented apartment when we stopped for a quick lunch. Later, we realized we were charged for an extra bottle of water — 5 EUR — that never even made it to our table. That’s when it hit me: I never actually track how much we spend during holidays — not just the total, but the real details. And I definitely don’t want to be the person hoarding receipts or building spreadsheets just to make sense of it all later. So I set off on the adventure of building How I Spend My Money (a.k.a. HISM2) — a smarter, lazier way to track spending with real-life context. Funny enough, I discovered that spending 45 minutes shopping for 20 EUR worth of groceries, then another hour cooking… ended up more expensive (and way more tiring) than just grabbing a pizza from the place under the bridge. Transportation? A money pit — buses, trains, cable cars, you name it. Shopping? Don’t even get me started. A black hole. That trip made me realize I need to track my expenses to the last cent — not out of guilt, but out of curiosity. I wanted to understand how I spend my money — and why. That’s what HISM2 is all about. The real me, spending. Exposed. Naked. Money gone — and no idea on what or why? No more. Excited to finally share it with you — and I’d love to hear what you think!