Managing Your Salary with ChatGPT - The Complete AI Budget Guide

Introduction

Every month when your credit card statement arrives, have you ever been shocked? Opening your email to see "This month's charges: 1,870,000 won" (~$1,400) and thinking "Wait, what did I buy?" You open the statement, but seeing dozens or hundreds of transactions spread across multiple pages just gives you a headache.

"03/15 Convenience store 12,300 won ($9)", "03/17 Online shopping 45,000 won ($34)", "03/19 Café 6,500 won (~$5)"... With dozens or even hundreds of transactions listed for the month, it's overwhelming to know where to even start organizing. Opening Excel to enter each item one by one is too tedious, but just ignoring it leaves you anxious about your finances.

Actually, over 80% of people who decide to keep a budget give up before the end of the first month. Why? Because the "organizing process" is too cumbersome. But now things can be different. Let AI handle this tedious work!

Asking AI to Organize Expenses

Here's where I'll show you Claude's real power. You only need to do two things:

Step 1: Copy your card statement or bank transactions (Ctrl+C) Step 2: Paste it to Claude and ask "Please organize this"

That's it! No complex setup, no difficult software to install. Just copy your transactions from your card company app or bank app and paste them to Claude. Claude will automatically categorize items, organize them into a table, and calculate totals.

Like having a personal assistant, your entire month's expenses are transformed into a clean budget in seconds. Let's see exactly how this works with an example.

Real Example

My input:

Please organize my March expenses:

03/01 Starbucks 6,500 won
03/02 GS25 Convenience Store 12,300 won
03/03 Olive Young 35,000 won
03/05 Coupang Eats 18,000 won
03/07 CGV Cinema 30,000 won
03/08 Netflix 13,500 won
03/10 Kakao Taxi 8,500 won
03/12 E-Mart 89,000 won
03/15 Café Bene 7,200 won
03/18 Kyobo Bookstore 24,500 won
03/20 Baemin (food delivery) 22,000 won
03/22 Olive Young 18,500 won
03/25 GS25 9,800 won
03/28 Starbucks 5,500 won

Claude's response:

Date	Category	Merchant	Amount (KRW)
03/01	Food(Café)	Starbucks	6,500
03/02	Food(Convenience)	GS25	12,300
03/03	Personal Care	Olive Young	35,000
03/05	Food(Delivery)	Coupang Eats	18,000
03/07	Entertainment	CGV	30,000
03/08	Subscription	Netflix	13,500
03/10	Transportation	Kakao Taxi	8,500
03/12	Food(Grocery)	E-Mart	89,000
03/15	Food(Café)	Café Bene	7,200
03/18	Books	Kyobo Bookstore	24,500
03/20	Food(Delivery)	Baemin	22,000
03/22	Personal Care	Olive Young	18,500
03/25	Food(Convenience)	GS25	9,800
03/28	Food(Café)	Starbucks	5,500

Total by Category:

• Food: 170,300 won (~$128) (Café 19,200, Convenience 22,100, Delivery 40,000, Grocery 89,000)
• Personal Care: 53,500 won (~$40)
• Entertainment: 30,000 won (~$23)
• Subscription: 13,500 won (~$10)
• Transportation: 8,500 won (~$6)
• Books: 24,500 won (~$18)

March Total Expenses: 300,300 won (~$225)

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Wow! Amazing, right? Claude took your messy statement with just dates, store names, and amounts, and in seconds organized it into this clean table.

There are several key points to notice here. First, Claude automatically categorized items. It saw Starbucks and recognized "this is a café," saw CGV and knew "this is entertainment." Second, it created subcategories. Instead of just "food," it broke it down into café/convenience/delivery/grocery, so you can see exactly where your money went.

Third, it automatically calculated category totals. You don't need to touch a calculator. Fourth, it accurately calculated and displayed the total expenses. All this happened in the time it took you to copy-paste and say "organize this." What would have taken at least 30 minutes in Excel—opening it, entering each cell, adding sum formulas—done in 5 seconds!

Requesting Detailed Analysis

But Claude's capabilities don't stop there. It's not just organizing—it can analyze exactly the way you want. For example, you can ask follow-up questions like:

"Food expenses seem high, can you analyze this in detail?"

Claude's response:

• Food is 56.7% of total expenses
• Delivery food (40,000 won) and cafés (19,200 won) show unnecessary spending
• You ordered delivery more than twice a week. Cooking at home could save over 20,000 won (~$15) monthly
• You visited cafés about once a week. Using a tumbler could earn you discounts

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Amazing, right? Claude goes beyond just calculating numbers—it analyzes your spending patterns and suggests improvements. It's not just that food is 56.7%, but more importantly, it pinpoints exactly "where" money is leaking.

It calculates the specific frequency of "delivery food more than twice a week" and adds actionable advice like "cooking at home can save 20,000 won monthly." This is like having a financial consultant advising you. The difference is that while seeing a financial consultant requires time and money, Claude is available 24/7 for free!

Prompt Template

Please organize [Month] expenses in this format:

[Paste expense records]

1. Organize into a table by date (Date, Category, Merchant, Amount)
2. Calculate totals by category
3. Overall total
4. Brief analysis and advice

How to Use This

Here's how to use it in practice, with detailed step-by-step instructions!

Step 1: Copy Transactions from Card App

First, open your card company app on your smartphone. It doesn't matter which card—Shinhan, KB, Samsung, Hyundai, etc. Each app is slightly different, but usually you can see transaction records in the "Transaction History" or "Statement" menu.

In the transaction history screen, select the desired period (e.g., March 1-31), then long-press to select all text and copy. Most card apps also have a "Share History" feature that makes copying even easier.

Step 2: Paste into Claude and Request

Now open the Claude.ai website or app and start a new conversation. Paste the prompt template I shared above, then paste your copied transaction history below it.

You can simply write "Organize March expenses," but if you specify the format you want, you'll get more accurate results. For example, specifically requesting "organize into a table, categorize, and calculate totals."

Step 3: Save Results to Excel or Spreadsheet

Copy the table Claude created and paste it into Excel or Google Sheets. In most cases, it pastes in table format, so you can use it immediately without additional editing.

If you don't have Excel, I recommend Google Sheets. It's free, automatically saves to the cloud, and you can check it on your smartphone. Once you paste it, you can create charts or compare it with other months' data for additional analysis.

Step 4: Repeat Monthly

Once you do this the first time, it takes less than 5 minutes from the second month onward. On the 1st of each month or at the end of the month, make it a habit to copy your card transactions, have Claude organize them, and add them to your spreadsheet.

After 3 or 6 months of accumulated data, your spending patterns become visible, and you can easily answer questions like "Why were food expenses so high this month?" And how much time does all this take? Just 5 minutes!

User Testimonials

"I use 2 credit cards and 1 debit card, and organizing them was always so hard. Now having Claude organize everything at once takes just 5 minutes!" - Office Worker A

"It was hard to distinguish between my husband's spending and mine, but now that AI automatically categorizes everything, I can see it all at a glance." - Homemaker B

Conclusion

Organizing expense records is the first step in budgeting. Many people actually give up at this first step. "It's too tedious to organize," "I don't have time," "I don't know where to start."

But now with AI's help, you can eliminate all these excuses. Just three steps: copy your card statement, paste it to Claude, and say "organize this." You don't need to learn Excel formulas or install complicated budget apps.

Most importantly, this 5-minute habit can completely transform your financial situation. If you don't know where money is leaking, you can't save or set savings goals. But once you start organizing your monthly expenses, you'll realize "Oh, I was spending this much on delivery food," "Small convenience store purchases add up to over 100,000 won (~$75)."

That realization is the beginning of change. Open last month's card statement today and have Claude organize it. With a 5-minute investment, your financial management journey begins!

In the next post, I'll show you even smarter ways to automatically categorize spending items!

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💡 Today's Tip: Claude can also recognize photos of receipts. Take a picture of paper receipts and upload them—it will automatically organize the details!