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 barely reaches Latin America, and many people won't share a bank login anyway. How to track your money regardless, and why manual isn't worse.
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- 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 stick to. How to choose, and what to do first.
- 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 pays for groceries. How to split it without keeping score or fighting over bills.
- Budgeting4 min
Emergency fund: how much you need and how to actually build one
The answer isn't "six months of salary". How to find your number from essential expenses, which currency to keep 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: today's purchase lands on a statement months from now. How to log them so the statement never shocks 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 shows another 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 without a method. The six questions of a monthly close, in order, and what each one means.
- Budgeting3 min
How to separate personal and work expenses when you're freelance
Without a split you don't know what you earn or spend, only what's left. How to divide them without incorporating, and what to do with the shared ones.
- 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, or a common pot — when each 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 dropped in week two, almost always for the same reason. How to build one from your real numbers, 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, logging expenses as you go, handling things not everyone used, and settling 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 use, and why not to recalculate.
- Habits3 min
How many expense categories you actually need
Thirty categories don't tell you more than eight: they add decisions per expense and leave more 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 doesn't help. How to measure what small expenses really cost before deciding whether to cut 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 personal tracking.
- 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 those that connect to your account. What fits each case, and what each one does NOT solve.
- By country4 min
How to track your spending in Argentina
Moving prices, instalments everywhere, two currencies and half the country paid via Mercado Pago. How to track expenses here without the method collapsing.
- Debt3 min
How to read your credit card statement and know what you'll pay
Previous balance, minimum payment, charges, instalments, dollar balance. What each line means, which one matters, and how to spot a charge that's wrong.
- Budgeting3 min
How to work out your essential monthly expenses
It's the base number behind your emergency fund, your budget and what you need to earn. How to work it out without underestimating, as most people do.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Mexico
Interest-free months, SPEI, the aguinaldo and the simplified tax regime if you invoice. How to build a system that survives MSI and the card cut-off date.
- 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 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 months, the questions that separate an app you'll use from one you'll abandon. With Kesef's own answers alongside.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Colombia
Nequi and Daviplata for daily life, PSE online, the twice-yearly prima and the 4x1000 tax. How to track expenses when your money moves through four 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 decade. How to work out your real ceiling from what's left after paying, and what to do when it doesn't add up.
- 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 both dates work, and how to use them without taking on debt.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Chile
Rent in UF and pay in pesos are two currencies, even if they don't look it. How to track spending with an indexed unit, and what to do with a Cuenta RUT.
- Habits3 min
Recurring expenses: half your month can be logged once
In a typical home, rent, utilities, subscriptions and instalments decide half of monthly spending. How to set them up once, and what to review quarterly.
- Comparisons3 min
Apps for splitting expenses: what to look for depending on who you share with
A trip with eight people isn't the home you share every month. The criteria change with the case, and choosing for the wrong one is the usual mistake.
- By country3 min
How to track your spending in Spain
Bizum for anything informal, PSD2 open banking that works, the autónomo fee and quarterly VAT. How to track spending with what exists only here.
- Multi-currency3 min
How to save when your currency is losing value
Saving in a depreciating currency is saving backwards, and outside advice ignores that. How to think about saving in two currencies without being a trader.
- Budgeting3 min
Category budgets: how many to set, and on what
Capping all eight categories is the fastest way to give up on caps. The two or three worth it, what number to start with, and what to do if 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, and the aguinaldo. How to handle two currencies in a month and keep track.
- Habits3 min
How to rebuild a month of spending you never logged
It can be done, and it's worth it: the fastest way to get a base month to budget from. Which sources to check first, what you'll lose, and when to skip it.
- Comparisons3 min
Expense apps that don't ask to connect your bank: what to look for
If you won't hand over your banking login, or the connection doesn't exist where you live, there's a short list of things the app must get right.
- 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 handles all three, no spreadsheet.
- Habits3 min
Exporting your expenses: what it's actually for and how often to do it
It isn't just insurance against switching apps. It lets you see two years at once, hand them to your accountant, and not depend on a company surviving.
- 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. In some cases the spreadsheet clearly wins: know which before switching 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.
- Comparisons3 min
Tricount alternatives for splitting expenses in 2026
Tricount does one thing well, and since Premium ended it's free. When that's enough, when it isn't, and what to check if you also need personal tracking.