Where does my
money go?

every budgeting app answers "what". the pie chart says dining, groceries, transport. you nod, and nothing changes. the question that changes something is "where".

"Dining: $412" is not an answer

A category is a label on a receipt. It tells you that money left for food, which you knew. It does not tell you that most of it left at one counter, two blocks from the office, on weekday mornings, out of habit. That second sentence is the one you can act on, and no spreadsheet column holds it.

Place is specific in a way categories never are. The same coffee near work and near home are different habits with different triggers, and only one of them is probably worth changing. When spending is grouped by the physical spot it happened in, the pattern is visible at a glance, and the fix is usually a route, a time of day or one standing order rather than a budget line.

Why counts beat dollars

A total in red is a judgement; a count is a fact. "Fourteen" at one place is easy to feel and easy to remember next Tuesday at 8:40 when you are walking past it. TallyMap counts in tally marks, five then a strike, because a mark is a thing you did, not a thing you owe. The amounts are there when you want them, but the map leads with the marks.

How to see your own spending by place

1. Without a bank. Every time you pay, drop a stroke where you are: carry Tally the mascot to the spot on the map, type the amount, pick the place from the stores it names under your thumb. It takes about four seconds and the habit itself is the point; this is the free tier, forever.
2. With a bank. Link it once through Plaid and every card swipe lands on the map by itself, at the shop it happened in, with a "near?" tag on the few your bank didn't describe well enough. You fix those once and the app remembers the shop.
3. Read it by week, month, year. The lens at the top changes what the pins count. A spot that is nothing this week and twenty-six for the year is the one to look at.
4. Then decide one thing. Not a budget. One place, one week, one dare: "no takeout for seven days, loser buys." Tally keeps score.

What it will not do

It will not track your location: the pin comes from the purchase, not from the phone. It will not upload your transactions: they stay on the iPhone. It will not tell you that you "could have saved $1,432" with compounding math, because nobody ever changed a habit from a guilt number. It shows you where, and lets you take it from there.