To add to what I do when I'm not in softcore budget mode: what I do for tracking is I am a pretty zealous user of Personal Capital (there's a bunch of apps/tools that do the same thing this one is just my jam) and at the end of the month I just look to see how much I spent in a given month (or year) in various categories.
For me that doesn't vary that much except when I'm being dumb, and 30 days spending isn't going to beggar me so it's pretty easy just to true up at the end of the month. There's also a handy trendline for what I did last month in terms of spending vs. this month, that at some level makes me remember things that skew that as either one offs that needed to happen (property taxes) or stuff that I shouldn't be doing.
