This post is written by the 26-year-old Spiir user, Sophie.

Let’s start my story by going two years back in time. Back then, I was studying to become a teacher and I was finally starting my adult life. I had tons of expenses for both fun and boring stuff, but I was already afraid of missing out because of money. I was the star of my own show and my credit card had to do what I wanted to do - whatever the cost.

My monthly educational support from the government barely arrived on my bank account before it had left again. Only a few weeks into the month, my bank account would be in overdraft, and it would become a tradition to eat pasta for the remaining 10 days.

My bank account and personal finances quickly became associated with shame, worries, and most of all a guilty conscience, and I often found myself in a situation where I didn’t want to check my bank account at all.

For a young Millennial like me, it wasn’t easy-peasy to say goodbye to all the coffee dates, sushi nights and party invitations. To say goodbye to all of that was like saying goodbye to what was normal for people my age.

The deplorable student life

But even though I had already waved goodbye to sushi with my friends to make sure I had the money for the entire month, I still didn’t crack the code to a healthier financial life. And to be honest, I was getting tired of carrying around the heavy load of bad conscience.

When I realized I had no idea what I was spending my money on, I knew I had to change something drastically. Instead of spending my money on stupid impulse purchases that gave me a temporary feeling of happiness, I needed to re-prioritize the way I spent my money.

Easier said than done!

What could my online bank do to help?

Not much to be honest.

The long list of transactions on my online bank account certainly didn’t help get a better understanding of what I was spending all my money on. To get a better overview of my spending habits, my friend suggested using the app, Spiir.

I downloaded it right away and started exploring the many different features on the app. The everlasting list of transactions from my bank account had been transformed with spending categories, spending goals, and fun quizzes.

Now, I was able to see that I had spent more than €1700 on clothes, shoes, and accessories last year. But.. What clothes? I was still having a minor crisis every other morning when I had to figure out what clothes I was wearing.

On the other hand, Spiir’s spending categories showed me, that I only spent €650 on bars, cafés, and restaurants last year. What?!

That made me realize that I spent my money completely wrong and that I actually had money to go out and have sushi and drinks with my friends if only I hadn’t spent that much on clothes, shoes and accessories - which didn’t even make me happy.

How weekly spending goals put me back in control

All right. Now I had an overview of what I was spending my money on. But that still didn’t solve my ‘broke-at-the-end-of-month-problem’. Luckily, I discovered Spiir’s weekly spending goals which put me back in control of my spendings.

At the time, my monthly income consisted of my educational support from the government and my part-time study job. All in all, I had about €1100 to spend on rent, bills, food, and everything else every month. And after all my fixed expenses were paid, I had about €400 left to live for the rest of the month. If we divide that amount into a weekly budget, that makes up for €100 per week on food, clothes, and nights out with my friends.

Therefore, I set up my Spiir spending goal of €100 per week. Now, the app would track every time I spent money, and that feature definitely helped me make sure I didn’t spend more than €100 per week. That marked my definitive goodbye to collecting receipts and making boring budgets. Instead, everything was taken care off completely automatically.

Gradually, I got back in control of my personal finances, which made the guilt and worries disappear. Now, I could lean back and let the app keep me updated on how much money I was spending, and maybe most the important thing: how much money I had left for the rest of the week.

As a student with a thousand other things on my mind, that was a huge relief for me.

Where does that leave me and my money habits today?

Even now, Spiir is an integrated part of my everyday life. I always check the app on a regular basis, but a lot less than I did in the beginning.

Even though I’m not a student anymore, I’m still spending money. And with a larger income, I’m spending more money today than I did two years ago when I was still a student. Therefore, I still love using Spiir as it has given me a very easy tool to keep track of my money.

And yes. I still have those days where I spend money on ‘stupid’ stuff, but that’s a part of life, I guess. Despite this, I’m so happy to have said goodbye to the financial guilt as I’m now aware of what I spend my money on.

Spiir is my shortcut to a life without financial worries.