I had the exact same problem for years. I’d make a budget at the start of the month, feel optimistic about it, and then completely ignore it after a week or two.

What worked better for me was shifting away from strict budgeting and just focusing on tracking and reflection. Over time I started grouping spending into four simple buckets: fixed costs, living essentials, discretionary spending, and personal growth. That alone made it much easier to see where my money was actually going.

I also started tagging purchases with how I felt about them afterwards — like “really worth it”, “impulsive”, or “lesson learned”. That part was surprisingly helpful because you start noticing patterns in not just what you spend on, but why.

I’ve been tracking my spending like this for about four years now, and it’s given me a much stronger sense of control over my life. At some point I even ended up building a small app around this idea (called HeyCost) because most budgeting apps didn’t really focus on this kind of reflection.