Spend on what matters: go through what you pay every month and keep what’s worth it
1. The rule you’re usually given
You want your money to go on what matters to you, not on payments you’ve stopped noticing. Ask how, and you’re usually given a rule. The best known is 50/30/20: half of your pay for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings.
In the Bank of Thailand’s 2024 survey of 12,558 households, 77.7% of people asked put saving for the future ahead of spending for happiness today (Bank of Thailand, 2024 household survey).
But a rule’s numbers aren’t yours. It doesn’t know your rent, your family or your plans, and it can’t tell which of your payments are worth it. There are plenty of money rules. Your own numbers are in your slips.
2. Add last month’s slips too
A payment has to come back before Slip Tracker lists it as repeating, so add last month’s slips as well as this month’s. Open Add, then Scan slips. Choose the slips you saved, or let the app find slips from the dates you pick.
Cash and payments without a slip need a manual entry: open Add, then Enter manually. See how to add your slips and cash.
3. Go through your repeating payments
Open Summary, then Repeating payments. It lists the payments that come back, such as rent, a phone bill or a streaming subscription, with how often each one comes and what it usually costs. It also shows the ones still to come this month. The list fills in as you record more months.
Food and drinks, groceries and transport aren’t in this list, even if you pay for them every day. Step 4 shows those.
Go down the list one payment at a time. Do you still use it? Is it worth what you pay?
Slip Tracker can’t cancel anything. To stop a subscription, cancel it with the company itself. On a payment’s page, Manage tracking offers Pause and Doesn’t repeat, but these only change the list in Slip Tracker.
4. See what you spend the most on
Open Summary. Breakdown splits your month by category, so you can see which ones take the most. Each category also shows its change from last month, such as ฿1,200 more. Switch to Merchants to see the shops and people you paid the most.
Look at the biggest few. Some you chose on purpose, like a trip home or a course. Others may be worth a closer look.
5. Look back at a trip by its dates
After a trip, open Slips. Tap the month name at the top, choose Custom range, set the Start date and End date, then tap Apply. Slips lists the payments you saved from those days, grouped by day, with how many there are.
Card and cash payments leave no slip. Add them by hand if you want them in the list.
6. Give a trip or treats their own category
Some spending is one thing to you, even when it’s spread over many shops: a trip or small treats like bubble tea and desserts. Saving up for a trip? Knowing what the last one cost gives you a number to plan with.
Open Settings, then Your money, then Categories. Tap Add category and give it a name, such as Treats or Chiang Mai trip. Choose Spending and pick an icon.
Then move the payments that belong there. Open a payment, tap its category, choose your new one and tap Save category. For a trip, the dates from step 5 help you find them.
Summary then shows your category with the others, with its amount and its change from last month. Tap it to see each month’s amount and the shops you paid.
7. Decide what’s worth it
Now you have your own numbers: what repeats, where most of your money goes and what a trip or your treats cost. Then decide what’s worth it to you.
It might be a subscription you no longer use, or a treat you’re happy to keep. Slip Tracker shows the numbers. It doesn’t tell you what to cut or what’s worth it.
Then look again next month. Summary puts the new month next to the last one, so you can see what went up or down.
8. What Slip Tracker doesn’t do
Slip Tracker is an expense tracker. It doesn’t sort your spending into needs and wants, and it doesn’t score what’s worth it. It can’t cancel a subscription. It has no savings goals, for a trip, a phone or anything else, and it doesn’t hold or move your money.
It only counts what you add: the slips it reads and the cash and income you enter. It never logs in to your bank.
9. Common questions
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
A rule of thumb many money guides give: half of your pay for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings. Its numbers are round figures, not yours. Slip Tracker doesn’t use the rule or sort your payments into needs and wants. It shows what you actually paid, so you can compare for yourself.
Can Slip Tracker cancel a subscription?
No. It shows the payments that repeat. To stop one, cancel it with the company itself. Pause and Doesn’t repeat only change the list in Slip Tracker.
Can I save for a trip in Slip Tracker?
No. It doesn’t hold or move money, and it has no savings goals. Afterwards, Slips lists the payments from the trip’s dates. If you give the trip its own category, Summary shows what you spent on it.
Does it count card and cash payments?
Only the ones you add. Card and cash payments leave no slip, so add them by hand: open Add, then Enter manually.
10. Get Slip Tracker
Free on Android.
Android 8.0 or later iPhone coming soon