Lesson 1
Measure the month you actually had
Pull three months of statements and find your true monthly spend.
Before you change a single habit, you need one honest number: what leaves your account in a normal month.
Gather the evidence
Open your bank account and every card you use. Export or scroll back through three months. Include cash withdrawals, direct debits, subscriptions and anything paid through a payment app.
Add it up
Total every outgoing payment across the three months and divide by three. That is your real monthly spending. In workshops, this number is almost always ten to thirty percent higher than the guess people wrote at the start.
Sort the lines into three buckets
- Fixed: identical amount, every month. Rent, insurance, loan payments, phone contract.
- Flexible: varies. Food, transport, clothes, going out, gifts.
- Leaks: things you forgot you were paying for. Annual renewals, trials that converted, duplicate streaming accounts.
Leaks are not a moral failing — they are the cheapest savings in the entire course, because one cancellation fixes them permanently.
Do this now
Write your three numbers on one page: total spending, total fixed, total flexible. Do not judge them yet. Day one is measurement only, and judgement is what makes people quit before day three.