Personal budget planner: turn a bank export into a plan
Most people know they overspend but not where. This prompt has your todo.is agent read your bank export, sort every transaction, find the subscriptions you forgot about, and build an Excel budget with formulas you can keep using.
The prompt
- Build me a monthly budget. My take-home pay is [MONTHLY INCOME] a month. Fixed costs: [RENT, BILLS AND DEBTS]. I’ve attached [BANK EXPORT FILES] covering the last 3 months. Sort every transaction into categories, show my average monthly spend per category, list all recurring subscriptions, and point out the 5 biggest places I could cut. My goal is [SAVINGS GOAL]. Suggest a monthly budget per category that reaches it, using the 50/30/20 rule as a starting point. Give me an Excel file with a Transactions sheet, a Budget sheet with formulas I can edit, and a one-page summary.
What to change
- [MONTHLY INCOME]: What lands in your account after tax, with currency. Use an average if it varies.
- [RENT, BILLS AND DEBTS]: E.g. "rent 1,100, phone 25, car loan 210". Your agent also spots these in the export.
- [BANK EXPORT FILES]: Attach the CSV or PDF statements from your bank app. Never send passwords or card numbers.
- [SAVINGS GOAL]: E.g. "save 400 a month", "€3,000 emergency fund by June", "pay off my card".
Example result
- Your budget summary
- Take-home pay: 3,200 a month · Average spending: 2,955 · Goal: save 400 a month
- Where the money went (monthly average)
- • Rent and bills: 1,310
- • Groceries: 420
- • Eating out and delivery: 365
- • Transport: 190
- • Shopping: 280
- • Subscriptions: 118
- • Everything else: 272
- Subscriptions found
- • 3 streaming services (47 total). You used one of them in the last 2 months.
- • Gym (39). No gym card payments nearby since August.
- • Two cloud storage plans for the same thing (12)
- 5 places to cut
- • Delivery apps: 22 orders a month. Halving them saves about 150.
- • Unused subscriptions: cancel 2 streaming plans and one storage plan, saves 33
- • Gym: pause or switch to a cheaper plan, saves 25 to 39
- • Shopping: set a 200 limit, saves 80
- • Groceries: plan meals weekly, saves about 60
- Suggested monthly budget
- • Needs (rent, bills, groceries, transport): 1,860 (58%)
- • Wants (eating out, shopping, fun): 600 (19%)
- • Savings: 420 (13%), moved on payday
- • Buffer: 320 (10%) for irregular costs
- In the Excel file
- • Transactions: every line with date, merchant, category; change a category and totals update
- • Budget: planned versus actual per month, with formulas
- • Summary: the page above, ready to print
How to do it with todo.is
- Download 3 months of statements from your bank app as CSV or PDF.
- Copy the prompt, fill in your income, fixed costs and goal, and attach the files in todo.is.
- Your agent sorts your spending and gives you an Excel budget plus a short summary.
- Each month, send the new export and say "update my budget" to compare plan with real spending.
Tips
- CSV exports give cleaner results than scanned PDFs.
- Tell your agent how to treat odd items, e.g. "transfers to Sam are shared rent".
- Set a recurring to-do on the 1st of each month to remind you to send the new export.
- Ask for "a version in Google Sheets format" if you prefer to edit it online; the .xlsx opens there too.
FAQ
- Is it safe to share my bank statements? Your files stay in your own agent’s private workspace and only your agent uses them. You can delete them when you’re done. Never share passwords, PINs or full card numbers.
- Does it connect to my bank account? No. It only reads the files you attach. Nothing is moved, paid or changed in your accounts.
- Is this financial advice? No. It’s a tool to see and plan your spending. For debt problems, investing, taxes or big decisions, talk to a qualified financial adviser or a free debt advice service.
- What is the 50/30/20 rule? A simple split: about 50% of take-home pay for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings or debt. Your agent adjusts it to your real numbers, for example when rent is high.
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