Know the real numbers.
None of the maths.

”

Every receipt went on the spike. At the end of the month I pulled them off and typed them into a spreadsheet, line by line. It worked. It also took most of an evening.

A billspike, the kind you'd find on a desk in an old-fashioned office, is exactly what it sounds like: a metal spike you push paper onto. Mine lived by the kettle. Everything went on it, shopping receipts, fuel, the pub, and once a month I worked through the stack.

It was tedious, but revealing. I thought I knew what I spent. I didn't. A bank statement told me what went to the supermarket, not which items were creeping up or how much of the trolley I didn't need. That was why I kept at it.

Shared spending was worse. A week away, or a dinner where everyone ordered differently, and settling up became a group exercise: receipts round the table, half of us on phone calculators, someone trying to remember whether the second bottle was shared. Usually we split it evenly, which was quick and wrong. Doing it properly took twenty minutes and at least one recount.

All of that is in the past now. BillSpike does the reading and the sums, which leaves the part worth doing: knowing the shape of your spending. Which categories are growing, what a normal month even looks like. Not a spreadsheet you abandon in February. You can only manage money you can see.

Settling up stops being a group effort. The receipt is already broken into lines, so it is a case of reading them out and tapping who had what. One pass round the table, no calculators. The accurate answer is now the fast one, and the balance stays on screen until you record the payment.

The spike now lives in your pocket. AI does the tedious part, so nobody retypes a receipt, and you stay in control of the result.