The job: Small regular payments pile up across cards and accounts, and you’re no longer sure what you pay for each month or what you still use.
What AI actually does here
- Groups transactions into categories such as bills, food, transport and subscriptions.
- Lists recurring payments and how often they’re taken, and flags likely duplicates or price rises.
- Drafts a simple monthly budget from your real figures, for you to check in a tool such as MoneyHelper’s free budget planner.
Tools to look at
- General assistants that accept spreadsheet uploads (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini)
- Spreadsheet AI features, for example in Excel or Google Sheets
- Your bank app’s own spending categories, if it has them
- MoneyHelper’s free budget planner
Named tools are examples, not endorsements. We have no paid relationships with them at the moment; see our disclosure.
What you need first
- This isn’t financial advice. For free help with budgeting or debt, see MoneyHelper or Citizens Advice.
- A cleaned export: delete account numbers, sort codes, card numbers and your address before you upload anything, or do the analysis in a spreadsheet on your own computer.
- Your own decision on every cancellation. Check notice periods and contract terms with the provider first, because AI can’t see them in a statement.
How to tell if it’s working
- Monthly spend on subscriptions before and after.
- Payments you didn’t recognise, and what they turned out to be.
- Whether the budget still matches your statements a month later.
Run the numbers in the ROI calculator →
What the evidence says
No statistics cited. Your saving is simply what you stop paying, which you can see on your next statements. MoneyHelper’s budget planner suggests having payslips, bank statements and bills to hand, and entering a yearly amount for costs that change from month to month.
Ready-to-use prompt
Replace the [BRACKETS]. Only paste data you’re allowed to share with the tool you’re using.
View promptBelow is an export of my bank and card transactions for the last [3 to 12] months, with account numbers and personal details removed (columns: date | payee | amount | description).
Below is an export of my bank and card transactions for the last [3 to 12] months, with account numbers and personal details removed (columns: date | payee | amount | description).
"""[paste or upload]"""
This is for my own budgeting, not financial advice.
1. Group spending into categories (bills, housing, food, transport, subscriptions, other) and give a monthly average for each. Show your sums.
2. List every recurring payment: payee | how often | typical amount | first seen | last seen | did the amount change?
3. Flag possible duplicates (two services doing the same job) and payments you can't identify. Mark unknown ones UNKNOWN; don't guess.
4. Draft a simple monthly budget table from these figures, leaving my income as [INCOME].
Don't tell me what to cancel. List the questions I should answer to decide.Sources
- MoneyHelper, Budget planner Free guidance service
- Citizens Advice, Debt and money Charity guidance
Last updated . Spotted something out of date? Email support@aiforthisjob.com. How we research and check playbooks.