Kesef guides
How to run your money without it running your day
How to split expenses with whoever you share a home with, how to build a budget that lasts, how to handle money in more than one currency, and what to check before picking an app. Written to be read once and used.
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How to track your spending without connecting a bank account
Open banking doesn't reach much of Latin America, and plenty of people wouldn't hand over their bank login anyway. How to track your money regardless — and why manual isn't the worse option.
All posts
- Budgeting3 min
The 50/30/20 rule, and what to do when prices keep moving
Splitting your income into 50% needs, 30% wants and 20% savings is a good starting point and a bad rule. What to do when rent alone eats the whole 50%.
- Debt4 min
How to get out of debt: snowball or avalanche, and which one to pick
The two methods that work, with the maths done: one saves more interest, the other is the one people actually stick to. How to choose, and what to do before starting either.
- Shared expenses3 min
How to handle the bills in a shared flat with roommates
Three or four people, costs nobody uses equally, and someone who always ends up paying for groceries. How to split it without keeping score or arguing over the power bill.
- Budgeting4 min
Emergency fund: how much you need and how to actually build one
The answer isn't "six months of salary". How to work out your number from your essential expenses, which currency to hold it in, and what counts as an emergency.
- Debt3 min
Interest-free instalments: why they wreck your month even when they cost nothing
The problem with instalments isn't the interest — it's that today's purchase lands on a statement six months from now. How to log them so the statement never surprises you.
- Multi-currency3 min
How to handle money on a trip abroad without losing track
Cash, card or digital wallet; which currency to log each expense in; why your statement will show a different number; and how to know what the trip really cost.
- Budgeting3 min
How to budget when your income changes every month
Budgeting on a fixed salary is easy. On income that moves you need a different method: a base month, a levelling buffer, and paying yourself a salary.
- Habits3 min
The monthly close: twenty minutes to see where your money went
Looking at the numbers on the last day of the month doesn't help much without a method. The six questions of a monthly close, in order, and what to do with each answer.
- Budgeting3 min
How to separate personal and work expenses when you're freelance
Without a split you don't know what you earn or what you spend — only what's left. How to divide them without incorporating, and what to do with the ones that are both.
- Shared expenses4 min
How to split household expenses with your partner without it becoming a thing
Three ways to divide shared costs — down the middle, proportional to income, and a common pot — when each one fits, and how to track it without a spreadsheet.
- Budgeting4 min
How to build a monthly budget that survives past the first month
Most budgets get abandoned in week two, almost always for the same reason. How to build one from the numbers you already have, and why to start with three categories.
- Shared expenses3 min
How to split trip expenses with a group without anyone keeping score
Who pays for what, how to log expenses as you go, what to do with things not everyone used, and how to settle up with the fewest transfers when you get back.
- Multi-currency3 min
How to track your money when you earn in one currency and spend in another
Adding pesos to dollars gives you a number that doesn't exist. How to log each expense in its own currency, which rate to convert at, and why not to recalculate.
- Habits3 min
How many expense categories you actually need
Thirty categories don't tell you more than eight — they just mean more decisions per expense and more expenses left uncategorized. How to pick yours, and when to split one.
- Habits3 min
The small expenses that add up, and how to find yours
The daily coffee isn't the problem, and blaming yourself for it doesn't help either. How to measure what small expenses actually cost you before deciding whether to touch them.
- Comparisons3 min
Splitwise alternatives for splitting expenses in 2026
What to check before switching expense-splitting apps: the free plan's daily cap, currency conversion, and whether you also need to track your own spending.
- Comparisons7 min
The best app to track your spending: how to choose one in 2026
Kesef, a spreadsheet, your bank's app, splitting apps and the ones that connect to your account. What fits each case, with what each one does NOT solve stated plainly.
- By country4 min
How to track your spending in Argentina
Prices that move, instalments everywhere, money in two currencies and half the country getting paid through Mercado Pago. How to track expenses here without the method collapsing in two months.
- Debt3 min
How to read your credit card statement and know what you'll pay
Previous balance, minimum payment, current charges, instalments, foreign-currency balance. What each line means, which one actually matters, and how to spot a charge that shouldn't be there.
- Budgeting3 min
How to work out your essential monthly expenses
It's the base number behind almost everything: your emergency fund, your budget, and knowing what you need to earn. How to calculate it without underestimating, which is what everyone does.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Mexico
Interest-free months, SPEI transfers, the aguinaldo and the simplified tax regime if you invoice. How to build a system that survives MSI and doesn't get ambushed by the card cut-off.
- Habits3 min
Voice expense logging: when it actually wins and when it doesn't
Dictating an expense isn't always faster. The four moments where it wins by a mile, the two where typing is better, and how to say it so it comes out right the first time.
- Comparisons4 min
How to choose an expense app in 2026: the seven questions that decide it
Instead of a ranking that goes stale in three months, the questions that separate an app you'll use from one you'll abandon. With Kesef's own answers stated alongside.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Colombia
Nequi and Daviplata for daily life, PSE for online, the twice-yearly prima and the 4x1000 tax. How to track expenses when your money moves through four different apps.
- Budgeting3 min
How much you should spend on rent (and what to do if you already spend more)
The 30% rule comes from another country and another decade. How to work out your real ceiling from what's left after paying, and which levers remain when the number doesn't work.
- Debt3 min
Statement closing date vs due date: why the day you buy changes everything
Buying the day before the cut-off or the day after can mean thirty extra days to pay. How the two dates work and how to use them in your favour without taking on debt.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Chile
Rent in UF and a salary in pesos are two different currencies even if they don't look like it. How to track expenses with an indexed unit in the mix, and what to do about the Cuenta RUT.
- Habits3 min
Recurring expenses: half your month can be logged once
In a typical household, rent, utilities, subscriptions and instalments already decide half of monthly spending. How to set it up once, and what to review every three months.
- Comparisons3 min
Apps for splitting expenses: what to look for depending on who you share with
A trip with eight people is not the household you share every month. The criteria change with the case, and choosing for the wrong case is the most common mistake.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Spain
Bizum for everything informal, PSD2 open banking that actually works, the autónomo monthly fee and quarterly VAT. How to track expenses using what does exist here and elsewhere doesn't.
- Multi-currency3 min
How to save when your currency is losing value
Saving in a depreciating currency is saving backwards, and advice written elsewhere doesn't account for it. How to think about savings in two currencies without becoming a trader.
- Budgeting3 min
Category budgets: how many to set, and on what
Capping all eight categories is the fastest way to abandon caps altogether. Which two or three are worth it, what number to start with, and what to do when you go over.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Uruguay
Rent in dollars and groceries in pesos, the VAT discount for paying by debit card, and the aguinaldo. How to carry two currencies in the same month without the numbers falling apart.
- Habits3 min
How to rebuild a month of spending you never logged
It can be done, and it's worth it: it's the fastest way to get a base month to budget against. Which sources to check in what order, what you'll lose anyway, and when not to bother.
- Comparisons3 min
Expense apps that don't ask to connect your bank: what to look for
If you don't want to hand over your banking credentials — or if the connection doesn't exist where you live — there's a short list of things the app has to get right. Here it is.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Peru
Yape and Plin for nearly everything, savings in dollars, and bonuses twice a year. How to build an expense system that accounts for all three, without a spreadsheet.
- Habits3 min
Exporting your expenses: what it's actually for and how often to do it
It isn't only insurance against switching apps. It's what lets you look at two years at once, hand them to your accountant, and not depend on a company continuing to exist.
- Comparisons3 min
Spreadsheet or expense app? When each one is the right answer
A spreadsheet isn't the poor option and an app isn't the lazy one. There are cases where the spreadsheet clearly wins, and it's worth knowing which before migrating either way.
- Habits3 min
Starting to track your money mid-year (or after giving up once)
Almost nobody starts on 1 January, and almost everyone quits once. How to start again without rebuilding what you never logged, and without the guilt that makes it last two weeks.
- Comparisons3 min
Tricount alternatives for splitting expenses in 2026
Tricount does one thing and does it well, and since Premium was discontinued it's free. When that's enough, when it isn't, and what to look for if you also need personal tracking.