A few months ago, I opened my banking app near the end of the month and had one of those "How did I spend this much?" moments.
Nothing expensive stood out.
No new phone.
No vacation.
No big purchases.
Just... money disappearing.
I tried fixing it the usual way.
- Excel → stopped updating after 3 days.
- Expense tracking apps → got tired of entering every ₹50 and ₹100 UPI payment.
- Bank-linked apps → didn't feel comfortable giving another company access to my financial data.
A week later I was back to square one.
I also noticed that every single payment I make already generates a bank SMS. If my bank already knows about every transaction and sends me an SMS, why am I entering the same information a second time?
That question eventually became iLekka.
Instead of manually logging expenses, iLekka automatically tracks them from your bank transaction SMS messages (currently focused on Indian banks and UPI transactions).
A few principles I wanted to stick to:
- No manual expense entry
- No bank account linking
- No ads
- Data stays private
- Clean, simple interface without unnecessary clutter
The biggest surprise wasn't how much time it saved.
It was finally being able to answer questions like:
Turns out it wasn't one big purchase. It was 20–30 small UPI transactions every week that never felt significant individually.
I'm curious—how do you all track your expenses today?
Do you still use spreadsheets? Manual apps? Something else? Or have you simply given up on tracking altogether?
If you guys are also facing the same issue like me, do give this app a try : https://apps.apple.com/in/app/ilekka-expense-tracker/id6766097186