Tracking expenses with Rocket Money

Tracking spending across multiple bank accounts, credit cards, and payment apps can be confusing and time consuming. Charges might have weird merchant names. You could forget about subscriptions on accounts you rarely check, or accidentally pay for services twice. If you share accounts with a spouse or partner, it gets even more complicated.

Rocket Money's spend tracking stops the guesswork and brings clarity to your finances. The app connects all your accounts into one dashboard and automatically categorizes every transaction. With Rocket Money, you can see exactly how much you spend in dozens of categories like groceries, dining, entertainment, shopping, utilities, and more each month. The app helps you spot duplicate charges and forgotten subscriptions instantly. This visibility helps you cut wasteful spending and save money instead of being left confused about why you're out of money faster than expected or where it all went.

What is Spend Tracking?

Rocket Money's spend tracking works by automatically pulling transactions from all your connected accounts (checking, savings, credit cards, investment accounts) into one feed. Each transaction gets categorized instantly, so instead of seeing confusing merchant codes, you see clear spending patterns organized by category.

Premium subscribers can manually tag transactions to track spending for specific purposes that span multiple categories. For example, if you're on a business trip, you can tag all related expenses: hotels, meals, transportation, and supplies to see your total trip spending. Similarly, for a group vacation where you'll split costs with friends later, you can tag all shared expenses and easily filter by that tag to calculate totals for splitting bills. Premium subscribers can also create watchlists to stay on top of spending that adds up fast. Want to see how much those daily coffee runs or frequent Uber rides are really costing you? Watchlists let you monitor specific merchants or spending patterns that might be quietly draining your budget.

The app analyzes your transaction history to surface hidden costs like free trials that converted to paid plans, annual charges you forgot about, and duplicate services. It sends alerts when it detects these issues, subscription price increases, or bill changes, so you can take immediate action. You'll also see all your upcoming bills on a calendar with notifications for due dates. With the payday view, you can see all your recurring spending on one calendar alongside your payment due dates, and Rocket Money automatically calculates how much you have left to spend after paying all your bills.

Rocket Money generates frequent spending reports that reveal your financial habits and trends over time. These reports show you when you tend to spend more, which categories consistently go over budget, and how your spending patterns change month to month, giving you the insights needed to make lasting improvements to your financial behavior.

What are alerts?

Rocket Money alerts automatically notify you about important financial changes through email, push notifications, and in-app banners so you never get surprised by unexpected charges or fees.

You'll receive alerts for overdraft fees, interest charges, late fees, upcoming annual fees, subscription price increases, duplicate charges, and large transactions that could indicate fraud. Premium members also receive account balance alerts. All alerts can be customized based on what matters most to you.

When a streaming service raises its price or you get charged twice for something, Rocket Money notifies you immediately so you can take action instead of discovering problems after they've already cost you money.

How to set up Spend Tracking:

Setting up spend tracking only takes a few minutes and is straightforward. You connect your bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts directly through Rocket Money's secure platform. Rocket Money uses bank-level 256-bit encryption and partners with Plaid to securely connect to your financial institutions. Your banking credentials never touch Rocket Money's servers, and the app uses read-only access, so it can see your transactions but cannot move your money or make changes to your accounts.

Once connected, Rocket Money automatically imports your recent transaction history and starts categorizing everything. Shortly after, you'll see your spending organized by category, recent transactions clearly labeled, and any recurring charges or subscriptions the app has already identified. From there, you can start using all the tracking features to take control of your spending.

What is the Safe-to-Spend feature?

Safe to Spend takes all your spending data and turns it into one simple answer: exactly how much you can afford to spend right now without compromising your financial obligations. Instead of wondering whether a purchase will leave you short on rent money, Safe to Spend does the calculations for you.

The feature analyzes your income, upcoming bills, recurring subscriptions, and upcoming credit card payments, then calculates how much money you have left over. This isn't just your bank balance: it's your actual spendable money after accounting for everything you need to pay before your next payday.

Safe to Spend removes the anxiety from everyday purchases. Whether you're grocery shopping or considering a larger purchase, you have one reliable number that tells you what you can afford without derailing your finances. The feature updates automatically as bills get paid, paychecks arrive, or spending occurs, so your safe-to-spend amount is always current.

What are widgets?

For Premium members, Rocket Money's widgets give you instant financial answers right on your iPhone home screen, so you never have to guess if you can afford something. Instead of opening multiple apps to check balances and calculate what's safe to spend, you get the convenience of knowing your vital information at a glance.

Rocket Money offers several powerful widgets designed to keep you financially informed throughout the day. The calendar widget shows all your upcoming bills for the week, including payday, so you can see exactly what money is going out and coming in. The recent transactions widget displays your latest purchases, helping you stay on top of spending without opening the app.

The safe-to-spend widget is particularly useful. It shows your current cash across all accounts and calculates how much you have left after upcoming bills before your next payday. This gives you a clear, instant answer about what you can actually afford to spend right now.

You can also set up budget category widgets for specific spending areas like dining, shopping, or groceries. If you tend to overspend on restaurants, for example, you can glance at your phone and instantly see how much of your dining budget remains this month. This way, you can make spending decisions confidently without having to open apps, check multiple accounts, or do mental math about your finances.

You can choose the widget that's most important to you or decide to have them all. Turn them on and off at any time based on what financial information matters most in your daily life.

Your money, finally under control.

Rocket Money's spend tracking turns financial confusion into complete clarity. Your scattered spending across multiple accounts becomes organized insights. Mystery charges become identified patterns. Spending anxiety becomes confident decisions with your safe-to-spend number always at your fingertips. By spotting duplicate charges, forgotten subscriptions, and wasteful spending habits, you can save money through better awareness of where your money goes. With automatic tracking, instant alerts, and home screen widgets, Rocket Money is specifically designed to help you save money through smarter spending decisions. You finally know exactly where your money goes, what you can afford, and how to keep more of it without the stress, guesswork, or nasty financial surprises.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set up Spend Tracking in Rocket Money?

Setting up Spend Tracking is straightforward and only takes a few minutes. You simply connect your bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts to Rocket Money through our secure platform. Once your accounts are linked, the app automatically imports your transaction history and organizes everything into categories, giving you a clear, comprehensive view of your finances.

Is my financial information safe with Rocket Money?

Absolutely. Rocket Money uses bank-level 256-bit encryption and partners with Plaid to securely connect to your financial institutions. Your banking credentials never touch our servers, and we use read-only access, which means we can see your transactions but cannot move your money or make changes to your accounts.

What types of accounts can I connect to Rocket Money?

You can connect virtually any financial account, including checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and loan accounts. The more accounts you link, the more complete and accurate your financial picture becomes, giving you better insights into your overall spending patterns.

How quickly do transactions appear in Rocket Money?

Transactions typically appear in your feed shortly after they occur, giving you near real-time visibility into your spending as it happens. This means you don't have to wait for monthly statements to see where your money is going.

Can Rocket Money detect subscriptions I've forgotten about?

Yes, and this is one of our most valuable features. Rocket Money automatically scans your transaction history to identify monthly subscriptions, annual charges, free trials that converted to paid plans, and services you may have completely forgotten about. This helps you discover subscriptions you didn't know you were still paying for.

What are widgets and how do I use them?

Widgets are convenient visual displays that show your most important financial information right on your iPhone home screen. They can display your safe-to-spend amount, recent transactions, upcoming bills, and budget progress for specific categories. You can customize which widgets appear, adjust their sizes, and arrange them based on what financial information matters most to you.

What kinds of alerts will I receive?

Rocket Money sends targeted alerts for important financial events like upcoming annual fees, subscription price increases, potential duplicate charges, upcoming bill due dates, and overdraft warnings. These notifications are designed to keep you informed about significant changes without overwhelming you with unnecessary updates.

Can I customize which alerts I receive?

Yes, you have complete control over your alert preferences. You can customize which specific alerts you want to receive, adjust how frequently they arrive, and easily enable or disable different alert types based on what information is most important to your financial situation.

What is Safe to Spend and how does it work?

Safe to Spend is a powerful feature that calculates exactly how much money you can comfortably spend right now without compromising your financial obligations. It analyzes your income, upcoming bills, recurring subscriptions, and upcoming credit card payments, then provides you with one simple, reliable number to check before making any purchase.

Do I need to update Safe to Spend manually?

Safe to Spend updates automatically most of the time as your bills get paid and income arrives. However, you should manually update it when significant changes occur in your financial life, such as starting a new job with a different salary, to ensure the calculations remain as accurate as possible.

How is Rocket Money different from my banking app?

While banking apps typically only show transactions from a single account, Rocket Money brings all your financial accounts together in one unified dashboard. We also provide features that banking apps don't offer, like automatic subscription detection, proactive price increase alerts, spending categorization, trend analysis, and tools like Safe to Spend that help you make better financial decisions.

Is Rocket Money better than tracking expenses in a spreadsheet?

Definitely. Spreadsheets require hours of manual data entry and are highly prone to human error and inconsistencies. Rocket Money automates the entire process by importing and categorizing your transactions automatically, saving you significant time while providing more accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive financial insights that would be nearly impossible to maintain manually.