I just finished entering the final spending details of 2025 into our budget spreadsheet so it’s time for my annual spending review (or, as Kyria calls it, a money pie!). These sorts of posts are either intensely fascinating or mind-numbingly boring depending on the audience. You get to decide where you land on that spectrum!
Most of the information/categorization below is similar to last year, but I’ve tweaked some of our spending categories. I also opted to analyze the numbers two ways: with and without investments.
HOW WE TRACK SPENDING
At the beginning of each month I download the transactions from our joint chequing account and our personal credit cards (we each have a VISA: John uses an annual fee Aeroplan card, and mine is a free cash-back dividend card).
I record all our expenditures under the appropriate category and that same information is funnelled into a summary spreadsheet that gives running totals for each category, along with monthly averages.
HOW WE SPENT MONEY IN 2025
- The pie chart above does not include personal taxes or investments. Thankfully, without any car purchases or big payments on our mortgage (we bought a used vehicle in 2023, another in 2024, and finished paying off our mortgage at the end of 2024) we were able to turn our attention toward retirement (see below).
- Since we manage our own business, phone and internet expenses are covered by our company so there are no phone and internet expenses, except for Belle’s cell phone. We get a portion of money spent on Household expenses (a small bit of electric, water/sewer, and heating costs) back since we maintain a home office. Those rebates are not factored into this pie chart.
- We do not track cash. If we find $20 on the street or if I sell something at a consignment store and get a payout, we do not classify that as income. If we buy something in cash, I don’t track it.
Our biggest spending category in 2025 was Charitable at 26% and our smallest category was Clothes at 1.5%.
AUTO (11.9%) | This includes: repair and maintenance (snow tires, alignments, undercoating), gas, car washes, and registration fees. Basically any expense that involves either of our vehicles goes here. (For context, 2024’s auto spending was 26.2%!)
HOUSEHOLD (19%) | This includes things like property taxes, house insurance, home repairs, heating and water bills, and general purchases (furnace filters, decor, water heater/propane tank rentals). This year it included painting expenses for our kitchen/hall and master bedroom.
CHARITABLE (26%) | We have a few main focus areas for our charitable giving. One of the most special is helping cover school expenses and basic living costs for a boy Indy’s age in Kenya and a girl Belle’s age in Ecuador. They love communicating via letter with these kiddos who we’ve sponsored for over 7 years now. It also includes all other giving, including costs associated with the short-term humanitarian trip John took to Rwanda in June.
GROCERIES (12.4%) | Our grocery bills keep rising (significantly) year over year. It continues to be a sobering reminder of just how fortunate we are. It’s so easy to take for granted the fact that we never have to prioritize food over heat or internet, etc.
TRAVEL (6.7%) | Our tickets for Paris were booked in 2024, so this is all the other expenses related to our Paris trip, a few personal expenses John incurred on work trips, and some expenses from his time in Rwanda.
MISC (2.9%) | This is terrible (and/or lazy) categorization. It’s primarily gifts and postage.
HEALTH (4.4%) | Most medical procedures are covered free of charge by the Canadian medical system. But we don’t have private insurance, so things like eye care and dental work are only covered for our kids. Spending this year included Belle’s braces (completely out of pocket since it’s technically a cosmetic procedure, not a necessary intervention), medications, subscriptions to Oura, and any other health-centric expenditures (like John and me getting our dental cleanings).
KIDS (3.5%) | This includes haircuts, school fees, Belle’s cell phone plan, and other activities (summer camp, sports registration).
MEALS AND ENTERTAINMENT (3.5%) | This covers restaurant meals/coffee shops, movie tickets, takeout, and entertainment subscriptions (we have four: Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, TSN).
LIFE INSURANCE (1.7%) | Self-explanatory.
CLOTHES (1.5%) | Anything in this category was either purchased new, or from a second-hand clothing store.
THRIFT (2.3%) | This encompasses household items, gifts, and clothing. I will be the first to admit I’m not overly particular about separating things out at the granular level.
WALMART AND DOLLARAMA (2.7%) | These are very general purchases: sometimes this is groceries, sometimes this is gifts, sometimes this is household supplies.
AMAZON (2.3%) | Ditto above: groceries, gifts, and things I wasn’t able to purchase locally.
ALL THIS IS TRUE…
Unless we factor in General Investments (RRSPs + TFSAs, which are closest to Roth IRAs and 401(k)s, respectively, for any Americans reading) and Kid’s Education (RESP; a bit like a 529 but the Canadian government will match investments up to 20%!!!).
We made some serious progress with investments in 2025 and that definitely skews our spending numbers.
When we factor in those two categories, Charitable drops to 11.3% and Groceries to 5.4%. Since the Kid’s Education investment was 5.3% of spending, that means we invested almost as much money into their future as we did into feeding them food to keep them alive in the present!
Long-term investments happily made up 51.2%, by far the biggest percentage we’ve ever managed.
Let’s do a side-by-side:
One last comparison, this time over the years (noting this is the first time I have factored in retirement investments, but prior to 2025 it wouldn’t have dramatically skewed the categories):
2023
- House investment = mortgage payments. Note the high Auto (we bought a used vehicle in cash).
2024
House investment = more mortgage payments + final payout on mortgage. Note the high Auto… again. We bought a second (used) vehicle (with cash).
2025
- No mortgage and no vehicle purchases in 2025.
And there you have it!
Your turn.
- Do you track your monthly or annual spending habits?
- If so, what was your biggest category in 2025? Smallest?
- Do you track cash (in/out)?
- What category would you like to see go up (e.g. more going toward travel) and what category would you like to see go down?
Header photo by insung yoon on Unsplash
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Wow, you must have work very deliberately to invest so much this year! Great job! And I love that you sponsor kids who are your own kids’ ages. How nice that they correspond with you.
Here’s mbmom11 TMI on where the money went.
I sort of track expenses. We had a financial issue about 20 yrs ago, after which we were very good about tracking dollars and categorizing. However, it’s left me with some weird feelings toward money- I can’t look at the breakdowns without becoming guilty and anxious. So after the software ( a free one, which I don’t recommend, but my husband picked it) stop generating nice reports, I don’t look at totals. I stopped tracking too rigorously and budget hasnt been revised in a while. So I probably spend more than I think on stuff, but nothing extreme.
I do download the bank stuff monthly ( and should have done it midmonth- Xmas spending took so long to sort!) . I do track cash, for the most part. Sometimes it’s labeled food and misc if I can’t remember where that $10 went.
For us, food , insurance, and education are probably the most pricey categories. Food ( lots of people, and I’m buying slightly nicer lunch stuff for my sons to built them up) , insurance ( house and car- very expensive where I live and teen drivers), education ( parochial school, junior college classes, college, the Y membership as I use for homeschooling, field trips, etc).
I like the miscellaneous category- that’s when I put clothes, stuff that’s not food, random purchases, household items, gifts,cleaning supplies, tools. It’s not lazy- it’s efficient to bundle together the little things that don’t quite have a home or don’t need to be broken out. If I was better at tracking, maybe I’d change this, but it’s not important to me
I would like to get a new car- all our cars are old and have many miles. But my husband maintains them, so not happening right now.
My husband and I both have retirement contributions taken out before taxes, and a HSA pre-tax; I don’t count these in my loosey-goosey budget. (Half my salary goes to the retiement- I’m only part time, but it helps add up!)
There are so many expenses that “don’t really have a home” as you say! I like this reframe that it’s not lazy just… a fact of life. Also, I don’t really enjoy getting granular and separating too many things out so I should just embrace the fact this is more than good enough when it comes to tracking!
Yay for not having to think about retirement contributions. Auto deductions are so wise!
I haven’t kept track in a long time, though last year we hired a financial advisor team and had to give them some of that info. Honestly, our biggest expense has been taxes for the last 10 years, which would include taxes from income, real estate, and sales tax. We’re talking over 50% of income. I’d guess the next biggest is groceries. This is a big change from 20-30 years ago, but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have a mortgage, car payments, school loans, or college expenses for kids anymore.
Taxes. Sigh. I don’t even want to think about taxes but they are an inevitable part of life and it costs what it costs. And, I do appreciate government services, and taxes are what it take!
I love your pie charts Elisabeth!
I try to be diligent about tracking our expenses every month, and separate them into very specific categories. Our largest three expenses are usually mortgage, groceries, and tithing.
If my husband or I withdraw cash from an ATM, I usually record it for the purpose it was withdrawn, but I don’t track the cash when it is actually spent.
I should probably track cash but it just feels like I’d throw up my hands and quite tracking entirely if I got much more specific? I don’t love tracking our expenses but I do LOVE being able to look back over the years and compare and see trends.
That’s some sweet, sweet pie! With a 50% investment rate, you are going to be stunned at how quickly those accounts grow.
I didn’t track my spending until a few years ago, and the reason that I started was planning for early retirement. I have a pretty consistent base number plus travel. I use a free website called Empower Personal Capital – all you have to do is to link your accounts, and then check the transactions every once in a while to make sure that it’s categorizing things correctly.
Travel was my #1 spend in 2025, and that’s exactly what I want it to be. Lowest spend? “Personal care” which is haircuts! I don’t track cash for the simple reason that I barely spend any so it doesn’t matter.
Going forward, travel is my #1 planned expense for the next few years. On the low side, I try not to spend money on silly things, which means really thinking through my Amazon purchases and limiting my trips to Costco. I don’t get super granular – if it comes from the grocery store it’s food, and if it comes from Costco it’s “general merchandise” even though I buy things that are not food at the grocery store and a lot of food at Costco – I have to figure that it all evens out.
I know that it’s time to cut spending in a category when it starts to bother me AND there is another option. A few years ago my cheap cell plan was starting to cost what I had been paying on a “normal” cell plan because travel meant that I was using more data. It’s not that I couldn’t afford it, but I found it to be annoying, so I switched to a cheaper service and now I feel incredibly smug. Obviously I spend a ton at the grocery store, I wish that I didn’t, AND there isn’t really another option that makes sense. I could spend a ton more time going to more stores so that I’m buying everything at the cheapest possible price, but that’s not how I want to spend my time, so I just do the best that I can and leave it at that.
I am hoping the retirement accounts grow quickly. We’re in fairly aggressive portfolios so I should just close my eyes, walk away, and wait for time to work its magic.
Yay for travel being your biggest category. That aligns so well with your priorities and values. Check, check, check!
I lump everything from the grocery store into “food” even though that includes cleaning supplies, toilet paper, makeup and toiletries. I refuse to break down a receipt into composite parts!
Fantastic job on tracking your spending so carefully and on your investment rate! That’s very impressive!
It was interesting to compare notes: last year, 9.4 percent of our spending went to health insurance. In Switzerland everyone pays this privately, it is not covered by employers at all. Our biggest category was housing at just under 22 percent, which makes sense as we are paying for two places.
Sport is also a surprisingly big category for us. If a trip is mainly sports-related, I file it there, which is not perfect accounting, but it keeps me honest!
I like your idea of tracking fitness related travel in that category; I think it makes sense! Especially if you use the same categories year after year, you’re able to track trends and changes. Smart!
I look forward to this post each year Elisabeth! It’s embarrassing to admit as an accountant, but I don’t track a budget anymore. We’re both not big spenders and I prioritize paying off debt (we paid our mortgage off in 2024 – woohoo!) and putting money to savings and retirement, and I just can’t be bothered with tracking expenses when I work with numbers in my many other jobs. I know it would be eye-opening though and I admire those who do it so much!
Honestly, I don’t really track expenses for anything other than being able to compare things year over year. We spend within our means, we mostly spend money in the categories we want to (for example, it is a bit much to have Disney+ AND Netflix, but we use both for different things and for now, Meh, they can both stay). I think if I tried to be more detailed I’d give up. Right now I spend about 10-15 minutes/month sorting things, though I’m debating whether I’ll keep it up while in Europe. This is one year when I SHOULD, but also have less desire than ever. We shall see where I land!
Well. This is the way to do it. Without a mortgage or car payments, you’re able to focus on charitable giving and investments. You guys are absolutely killing it! And this is a great advertisement for frugal living by the way… I think we all want to be like you : )
You’re such a wonderful encourager, Jenny.
We have tried to wisely use our money to channel into things we value and prioritize and for the most part, I think we’re doing just that. Of course there are little things we could tweak, but I’m satisfied with our year of spending (in general).
I love money posts! It’s interesting to see the difference with and without investments! Our 401k contributions are pre-tax so I don’t at all include them, and I also exclude all other investments, like 529s for the kids, stock purchases at Phil’s company (his company is private so he gets the option to purchase shares through the year and then they pay dividends which is pretty large % of his total comp package). If I included investments, I think it’s be about 50% of our pie as well.
I’ll post my money pie tomorrow, but the biggest expense is definitely childcare BY A LANDSLIDE. But it’s worth every single penny. The 2nd largest expense is charitable giving. I would like that to double but Phil is so conservative with money, and that includes charitable giving. He does make one $1k donation to a foundation that helped his late brother. The other giving is things I decide on (United Way, our church, the library, and other giving opportunities throughout the year). I’d also like our travel wedge to be bigger but we need to be in a different stage of life.
I had never included investments so I was FASCINATED to see the impact. If I factored in taxes it would be another kettle of fish, but I just try to ignore that major source of spending.
Can’t wait to see your money pie post!!!!
Soooo interesting and well laid out in this post! I am intrigued how you only spend 10-15 min a MONTH though tracking spending? I feel like we have a million charges/expenses/ returns/ credits that show up in an average month and even with the automation in Monarch, it takes a good while to go through them all. We may have some additional “complexities” because we tend to do a lot of, for example, paying for a big meal out with Ivan’s family and then people give us money back, we have a couple of his family members on our family plan phone account, so we pay a big bill but then get some reimbursements (ideally…. ahem…), or I’ll book travel stuff and my dad will reimburse me for my parents’ share, etc. It can be a headache for sure. Then factor in now the boys have their own credit cards and debit cards but the credit cards are linked to one of our main accounts, but then they make monthly payments to cover “their” share, which I have to account for so it doesn’t count for MY personal “Restaurant” category, for example, if one of them eats at Chipotle or whatever (with their own money). We also have quite a lot of different credit cards, which we pay all in full and use some more than others, but it just adds yet another layer to managing it all. 😵💫
I sent you a text with a bit more context but… yup! I would say 15 minutes (TOPS) is what it takes me each month to fill in the template. It’s just copy and paste. I manually dump the transactions from each credit card and the joint chequings (so I have 3 .csv files) and pull that information in to a Google sheet.
I DEFINITELY think your finances sound more complicated which makes sense with more moving parts (neither of our kids has CC’s and we rarely split bills).
That is one perk to only have one credit card each; we are failing at the travel hacking game… but it’s easier to keep track of things 🙂
Oh fascinating! Also, how amazing to look at the chart without having mortgage payments. We are trying to pay down our mortgage as quickly as possible because I think it will feel so good to not pay it… even if we just invest more in savings and retirement.
Also I think it’s funny that “dollar store” and “amazon” are categories for you! I always get annoyed at my “misc” category which is currently postage and photo albums. But also we have a lot of stuff in “household” that is probably under your dollar store/amazon category.
Thanks for sharing – I always find these posts so interesting 🙂
I loved reading your post!!!
I know it is very controversial to pay off a mortgage but I have zero regrets.
I will be the first to admit I have a LOT of categories that hold a lot of Misc. I don’t buy my gifts from just one place and I’m too lazy to really break it down. It would be a bit more accurate to lump all those things into Misc, but then it would be depressingly large, so I separate it out. And it is interesting to know how much I’m spending at each of those places!!
You know where I stand on tracking! I track my spending and have for a long time, although I got more consistent with my methods about 12 years ago. I also track my net worth every year and it is kind of fun to see it go up (hopefully) or even better, on years like the last few where the markets have been good, it is really fun to see it go up by more than I spent (aka, still climbing, despite nothing coming in from a W2 job)! I love seeing how big your investment slice is; it really warms my heart! I also love that comparison that the kids food and their future education are costing about the same. That is great!
Yes! We have a fairly comprehensive net worth tracking sheet now.
Paying for food for them now… and investing so they can buy food for THEMSELVES later 😉
This is fascinating! We toyed around with some budget ideas and finally found one that works best for us right now – it worked well all through 2025 and we’re carrying over into 2026. In a nutshell: we “pay ourselves” the first of the month and allocate different amounts per area of spending – much like the cash envelope system, but it’s all digital/tracked in a notebook. If we have leftover in any given category at the end of the month, it’s either rolled over for end of year (leftover grocery money ordered a large stash of the good coffee beans we like) or dumped back into savings. But I love this look at the year’s snapshot! 🙂
I love this system! It seems like a great way to stay organized and accountable AND have money for fun things.
You know, I always enjoy the money pie posts – I am planning to put one together myself. It’s interesting to see how very different these pies look depending on someone’s life situation (and what is represented, especially when we look at percentages of money spent).
It’s fantastic that you were able to pay off your mortgage and put funds towards retirement. And your charitable donations percentage is commendable! Our biggest category of 2025 was definitely housing (CA is just terribly expensive and we rent, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon) but I also really value our new home and how it makes me feel to live here in our new neighborhood.
I’m so glad you are feeling settled and happy in your new space. Accommodations are so expensive and I think California is the most expensive in the country, isn’t it?? (On average.)
Love this!! Thank you for posting. As many others said, it’s such an inspiration and encouragement to see others living as good stewards of what they’ve been given! Cheers to you! Would you consider a post all about the decision (and hard work) to pay off your mortgage?! My husband and I are a stage- ish behind you with a 3 y/o and 10 month old…. And zeroing in on maybe 3 more years until we have it paid off! My goal is before my 40th birthday, which we should hit successfully! 😊 thank you again! Love your work.
Thank you for this post! Such an inspiration and encouragement to see others living as good stewards of their finances. Would you consider a post about the decision and hard work of paying off your mortgage early? My husband and I are a stage ish behind you (3 y/o and 10 month old) and pursing this goal. We should be on track to hit it in about 3 years! Thank you!
I’m on it! Would love to write a bit more about this. And that’s amazing that you’re on track for this soon!
My husband and I share one credit card (I know, not enough travel hacking) and at the end of the year we download a csv from Capital One, paste into Google Sheets, tweak a few of the categories that come prefilled, add on our rent check payments, make pie charts, and voila! We have our spending year-in-review! I need to do that for 2025, thanks for the reminder. I am really curious what percentage of pre-tax/post-tax income our investments are. I’ve never added them in! I expect it’s a pretty big percentage since we have relatively inexpensive rent so for many years have put that extra money into retirement and investments. Our top spending categories are usually travel, charitable donations, and rent. When both kids started public school full time BOY did our childcare expenses go down. Love these posts, thanks for sharing!
I love how streamlined your approach is! I think sometimes we unnecessarily overcomplicate things. For us, I just want a general overview, hence not getting overly granular in tracking.
I remember the delight of the final preschool payment!!!
I also used to sponsor kids the same age as mine (World Vision) but WV withdrew from South Africa so I moved my contribution to a scholarship fund at my son’s school. Do you tithe? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. When I saw the charitable giving pie, I thought it was inclusive of tithes.
I should do a money summary but am SCARED! I feel like my spending was out of control (whenever I’m stressed, I spend on stupid things to “feel better”).
We do tithe, so that’s included in charitable giving!!