You don’t need to love spreadsheets to know where your money goes. AI can do the sorting and the math. You make the decisions.
Before you paste anything
Never put account numbers, card numbers, logins or your Social Security number into an AI chat. Download or copy your transactions, then delete or cover those details first. AI also isn’t a financial advisor: use it to understand your money, and talk to a professional for big decisions like debt, investing or taxes.
Step 1: where did it go?
Most banks let you download last month’s transactions as a file, or you can copy them from the app. Remove the account numbers, then:
Sort my spending Claude
Here are last month's transactions with account details removed: [paste or attach]. Sort them into: home, utilities and phone, groceries, gas and car, kids, insurance and health, subscriptions, eating out and fun, savings, and other. Total each one, show it as a table, and point out any subscriptions or repeat charges I might have forgotten about. No judgment.
Check the totals against your bank statement. AI can misread or miscount a long list, so a quick look catches it.
Step 2: a plan for next month
Build a simple budget Claude
Our take-home pay is about $[amount] a month. Based on the spending table above, suggest a realistic budget for next month by category. I want to [save $X / stop going over on groceries / pay for summer camp]. Show me 3 small changes that would get us there, starting with the easiest.
Print the result on the free budget planner and stick it where you’ll see it.
Bills that make no sense
Explain this bill Claude
Here's a bill with my personal numbers covered: [attach photo]. Explain each line in plain words. Tell me what looks unusual and give me the exact questions to ask when I call them.
Plan for the big ones
The yearly money calendar Claude
List the costs a family like ours usually forgets to plan for across a year: back-to-school, birthdays, holidays, car registration, insurance renewals, summer. Our family: [who and ages]. Put them by month and suggest how much to set aside each month so none of them is a surprise.
Before a big purchase
Is this a good price right now? Grok
I'm thinking of buying [product] for $[price]. What's it selling for at other stores right now? Has it been cheaper recently? What are owners complaining about? Link where you found each thing.
Prices online change hour to hour. Treat Grok’s numbers as a starting point and check the store’s own page before you buy.
Try it tonight
Download last month’s transactions, remove the account details, and run Sort my spending. Find one subscription or repeat charge you can cancel. That’s often the first win.
You finished Module 2.
Meals, the calendar, homework, messages and money: the mom load is officially lighter. Take the quick quiz, then on to Module 3, where you stop starting from scratch every time.
