---
title: The First Step to Better Money Habits
description: Unlock financial clarity by tracking fixed expenses before budgeting. Learn how to manage your finances effectively with our easy-to-use Google Sheets tracker.
---

<https://www.marcomoney.com/blog>

# [The First Step to Better Money Habits](https://www.marcomoney.com/blog/dont-start-with-a-budget)

 Written by [Kevin Diefenbach](https://www.marcomoney.com/blog/author/kevin-diefenbach) | Feb 2, 2026 4:11:15 PM

Most personal finance advice starts with budgeting.

 

I think that’s backwards.

 

Besides investing, **tracking expenses** is the most impactful thing you can do for your finances - more impactful than budgeting. You can’t meaningfully budget if you don’t know what you’re already committed to.

 

The problem is that tracking *everything* is a lot of work. So this post focuses on the easiest place to start: fixed expenses.

 

Busy? Skip to the end for my free template.

 

## Fixed vs. Flexible Expenses

I group expenses into two categories.

 

**Fixed expenses** are predictable commitments that show up whether you think about them or not:

- Rent or mortgage
- Subscriptions (streaming, insurance, gym)
- Recurring donations
- Utilities (even if the amount changes month to month)

**Flexible expenses** change based on daily choices:

- Shopping (like my [2026 personal shopping challenge](https://www.marcomoney.com/blog/my-2026-shopping-budget))
- Travel
- Entertainment
- Emergency car repairs
- Food*

*Food is essential, but spending on food is highly flexible, so I treat food as a flexible expense. The exception is food subscriptions (like HelloFresh) which would be a fixed expense.

 

## Why Start With Fixed Expenses?

Fixed expenses don’t require daily tracking, but they are probably a big chunk of your monthly spending.

 

Knowing your fixed expenses helps you:

- Understand what money is already "spent"
- See your real flexibility each month (what is leftover)
- Avoid surprises!

This awareness is the foundation for everything else. Everything I'll talk about in future posts.

 

## My Fixed Expense Tracker

I built a simple subscriptions / fixed expense tracker in Google Sheets so I could see all my commitments in one place... all 30+ of them. 💸 Maybe my tracker can help you?

 

You can make a free copy here 👉 [Free Template](https://hubs.la/Q041j4ch0)

 

 

[View full post](https://www.marcomoney.com/blog/dont-start-with-a-budget)

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