It's only a cost of living crisis for you if your essential living expenses exceed your income, not knowing is a bigger problem. Before doing anything else you need to provide yourself with visibility of your cash flow, and that is what this app enables you to do.
This is the actual amount of money you require to live your life. It may help to think of your cost of living like this.
income = cost of living + fun money + rainy day savings + long term investments
Your cost of living needs to be less than you earn. If it's not then you will be eating into your rainy day savings and then your long term investments. To stop that there are two things you can do.
Doing these two things will also increase the money you have available for fun, rainy day savings and long term investments.
Once your income and expenses are clear, you can think carefully about how you can reduce your expenses without reducing your enjoyment of life.
The best and simplest way to do this is to stop wasting money on things you no longer want or use. If you don't use it then sell it. Don't continue to pay a subscription for a service you no longer use.
This is the real benefit of the cash flow table. As it displays your cash flows your way, you can use it to determine which lifestyle changes you can make to improve your life and your finances.
Do you know how much you earn? Not that many people do. The number that's often quoted is before tax and before the costs of turning up to work are deducted. You need to know the number after all that has gone out, because being able to determine that number and knowing that number are crucial factors in determining which opportunities to pursue and which to leave.
The costs of turning up to work are ALL the costs that you incur that you would not incur if you did not have a job. This may include things like a suit, smart shoes, travel costs, childcare costs, tools.
If you wanted to earn some extra money, the first thing I would recommend you consider would be to monetise your hobby. Your going to enjoy doing it and the additional work will not seem like such a chore.
It's easy to get all happy at the prospect of earning more money, but if you look at the formula you can see that earning an extra dollar will have exactly the same effect on your life as saving a dollar, so it's worth going for the easiest option first.