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Hacking Adulthood

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Tracking Your Spending

written by Anita Asiedu March 29, 2016
Wally-1-01

I think of my life in terms of ‘Before Wally’ (B.W.) and ‘After Wally’ (A.W.) Downloading Wally was such a seminal moment in my life that nothing has been the same since.

When you make small and frequent luxury purchases, you know they add up but you don’t really realize just *how* much they all add up. Weekly treats of waakye with all the works (plantain, egg, spaghetti, gari, salad) at 6 cedis a pop will cost you 20 cedis a month, and 240 cedis a year. It will be even more if you occasionally buy enough for your friends at work.

Wally’s most important feature is its spending tracking interface. The app is integrated with all the world’s currencies (good to know, so that you don’t spend your first day after downloading it figuring out how much 70p Hausa kooko is in U.S. Dollars). There are various categories under which you can place your spending – General, Personal, House, Food & Drinks, Transport, Clothes, Fun, and Miscellaneous with sub-categories under each category. You can always have a look at your categorized expenditure in the handy “Review” tab, so you can see how much you spend on “Fun” vs. how much you spend on “House.”

Weekly treats of waakye with all the works (plantain, egg, spaghetti, gari, salad) at 6 cedis a pop will cost you 20 cedis a month, and 240 cedis a year. It will be even more if you occasionally buy enough for your friends at work.

Your spending can be further categorized into “Personal” “Social” “Work” and “Family” so you differentiate between “Personal – Fun,” “Work – Fun,” and “Family – Fun” expenses.

With Wally’s budgeting feature, you can set and adjust your savings forecast, which determines your daily and monthly budget. So when you enter the 6 cedis you spent on your fully loaded waakye, it’s very easy to tell how much it has taken out of your daily and monthly budget. Your budgets are determined by the amount of money you tell Wally you receive every month – so your salary, freelance work cheques, etc.

Starting to track my spending has had a considerable effect on my spending/budgeting habits. Now I think about every purchase – big or small and as a result, I don’t “waste” as much money as I used to. It’s also really helpful to review my spending at the end of the month (or whenever I want) and then make the necessary adjustments in order to reach my savings goal. With Wally, I don’t think “wow HOW did I spend 500 cedis on food alone last month?!”; I think “which food did I spend 500 cedis on last month, and how can I reduce this amount next month?”

Additional Wally Features:

  • Enter recurring payments
  • Enter additional income eg. work bonuses
  • Scan & save receipts
  • Log details of your expenses (venue, time, notes, photos of receipts)  
  • Data is stored on your phone, and not on a remote server that could potentially be hacked

Download Wally on iOS at Wally, and find them on Twitter or Facebook at @wally_app

 

If Wally Is Not For You…

  1. Spendee – plain and simple. Data is also only stored on your phone and not with a third party. Available for iOS and Android
  2. Mint – It integrates with your online bank accounts to track your spending. Naturally, it requires your online bank details – password, bank account number, debit/credit card number. Mint syncs all your data with its own servers.
  3. Toshl Finance – Want some words of encouragement from animated characters as you log your spending? Then Toshl is for you! Visit Toshl.com for an account that enables you to have your data stored in the cloud. Available for iOS and Android
  4. Google Drive – You can use the Drive’s money tracking spreadsheet to track your expenses. Additionally, you can share your spreadsheet with others (friends, spouses, etc.) so you can track your spending and saving together
  5. iSpending – Can incorporate password protection so you can keep your expenses private. Available for iOS
  6. Bill Guard – tracks your spending and also monitors your credit/debit card transactions so it can flag suspicious transactions. It’s only available in the U.S. for now
  7. Spending Tracker – Allows you to sync across Dropbox so you and your friend/partner can use the same data on two phones. Also allows you to set a budget for each category of your spending. Available for iOS and Android

 

Tracking Your Spending was last modified: March 30th, 2016 by Anita Asiedu
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Anita Asiedu

Anita’s favorite things include, in no particular order, eating rice in all its wonderful forms, scrolling through photos of pugs, walking out of the airport into the sunlight of a new country, and daytime naps. By day, she's the Communications Manager of a technology startup based in Accra and by night, she is a superhero dedicated to freedom, justice, and the use of good grammar.

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10 comments

Theresa April 6, 2016 at 12:05 pm

Love this! I didn’t realize there were as many Apps devoted to helping you track your expenditures from one month to the next. Going to give it a try.

Reply
Anita Asiedu April 6, 2016 at 6:01 pm

Hi Theresa! Glad you enjoyed the article. All the best with Wally, or whichever app you choose to use. Let us know how it goes! :)

Reply
Jennifer Tweneboah April 6, 2016 at 6:40 pm

I love love love….like I feel more confident knowing my maths on income and expense are going to get better. Plus something to keep me in check. Those 6cedis waakye …smh.

Reply
Nana Adwoa Sey April 7, 2016 at 9:35 am

Thanks Jennifer! We’re glad you found the advice helpful. :)

Reply
Nana Yaa October 6, 2016 at 9:18 pm

I love this site! I’m excited about Wally keep on writing more hacks!!!!

Reply
Hacking Adulthood October 7, 2016 at 8:41 am

Yay yay!!!! We sure will Nana Yaa!

Reply
Mobi September 21, 2017 at 2:54 pm

Thank you for this! I’ve been looking for an app I can actually stick with and this Wally might just be it.

Reply
Hacking Adulthood September 21, 2017 at 8:10 pm

You’re so welcome, Mobi! I’ve been using Wally for about two years now, and it has really helped me to budget and also control my spending.

There’s a fancy new version of the app out, but I think I’m gonna stick to the plain version for as long as I can :) – Anita

Reply
Charlotte B September 22, 2017 at 11:20 am

Thank you for that! I would like to assign a budget for each of my categories, is it possible?
thank you!

Charlotte

Reply
Hacking Adulthood September 22, 2017 at 4:09 pm

Hi Charlotte, you’re very welcome. Unfortunately Wally doesn’t have that feature, even though it would be super helpful! Currently, you can see a breakdown according to the different categories, but there’s no way to assign budgets. Maybe this feature will be included in the updates of the latest version of the app – Anita

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Hacking Adulthood is a place to learn about, discuss, complain about, and celebrate everything about being adults in Ghana. Together we will figure out how navigate adulthood and learn more about how to be adults. We’ll cover everything from managing personal finances and how to secure a mortgage to how to make friends as an adult. We can’t wait to start this journey of navigating adulthood with you!

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