Money Guides · Budgeting · 5 min read
Where Is My Money Going? How to Find the Leak in One Sitting
The question behind the question
When someone asks where their money is going, they usually already know the totals. What they cannot see is the pattern — the repeatable behaviour that moves money out of their hands before they have decided anything.
Finding the leak is not an accounting exercise. It is a noticing exercise. You are looking for the moments where money left without a decision attached to it.
Step one: write down what actually arrives
Start with income, not spending. Write the amount that lands in your account each month after deductions — the real figure, not the salary on your contract.
If your income varies, use the lowest of the last three months. Planning from your best month is one of the quietest ways to create a shortfall.
Step two: separate fixed from chosen
Split everything you spend into two columns: commitments you cannot change this month (rent, transport, loan repayments, school fees) and everything else.
The first column tells you your floor. The second column is where the leak almost always lives — and it is also the only column you can act on this month.
Step three: look for the four patterns
Most leaks are one of four behaviours. Unplanned Spending™, where money simply leaves before a decision is made. Lifestyle Inflation™, where every increase in income is absorbed by an increase in living. Generous Overgiving™, where support for others quietly outranks your own plan. And Debt Mismanagement™, where repayments are made but never reduce the balance.
Naming which one is yours matters more than knowing the totals, because each one is closed by a different action.
Step four: make one decision, not ten
A budget that changes twenty things fails in a fortnight. Choose the single largest item in your chosen column and decide, in advance, what it will be this month.
One decision made ahead of time replaces dozens made in the moment — and the moment is where money is lost.
Next step
Find your Primary Money Leak Pattern™
The free five-minute Money Leak Finder™ names which of the four patterns is costing you most, and gives you one practical Money Move™ to close it.
Take the free assessment