How to set up a monthly budget
- Open Budgets and tap New budget.
- Choose the period: Every month (it starts from zero on the 1st) or For a period with your own dates — a renovation, a holiday, a semester.
- Choose what it covers: All expenses or one category. A category budget includes its subcategories, so Food covers both Groceries and Eating out; you can also pick a single subcategory.
- Enter the limit and, if you like, a name. Done — the budget starts with the current month.
Only expenses count. Transfers between your accounts, money put aside for a goal, money lent to a friend and balance adjustments never eat into a budget.
What the budget screen tells you
- Spent and left — the limit, what's gone and what remains, with a bar that turns amber from 80 % and red above 100 %.
- ≈ per day — what is left divided by the days left in the month, today included. The simplest answer to “can I afford this today?”.
- Pace — what you have spent so far, projected to the month's end: “On track: about 410 by the end of the month”, or “At this pace: 530 by the end of the month” when it's heading over.
- By month — every month's history: the limit at the time, what was spent and how far it went over.
A budget card also sits on Home, so you see where you stand without opening anything. All of these numbers come from your own records, so they are only as good as your logging — which is why fast entry matters.
Alerts at 80 % and 100 %
You don't have to check the screen every day. When a budget passes 80 % of its limit, and again when it is used up, you get an alert:
- In the app — in the notification bell, marked as important.
- In Telegram — if you have connected the Telegram bot, it writes something like “🟡 Budget «Food»: 80% spent — 320 of 400” and how much is left until the end of the month.
Each alert comes once per budget, per month and per threshold — no nagging every hour. If a budget is already past a threshold when you create it or change its limit, that threshold is marked quietly instead of alerting you about the past.
Change the limit without rewriting history
Rent goes up, a child starts school. Change the limit whenever you need to: the new amount applies from the current month on, and earlier months keep their own limit. The history still shows how you did against the plan you had back then.
Don't need a budget any more? Archive it — it leaves the list with its history kept, and Restore brings it back. What a budget covers and its period stay fixed; for something different, archive it and create a new one.
A simple monthly plan that lasts
If you are new to budgeting, don't start with twenty limits. A plan that works for most people:
- Track one month as it is, without limits, so the numbers come from your life rather than a guess. How to track expenses has a simple method.
- Create one budget for All expenses at a level you can actually keep.
- Add category budgets only where money leaks — often eating out, shopping or taxis.
- At the end of the month, look at By month and adjust. Fixed bills like rent can be recurring transactions, so they appear on their own and count from day one.
Questions
Does the budget planner connect to my bank?
No, never. You record spending yourself — by hand, by voice, from a receipt photo or in Telegram — and the budget counts what you recorded.
Can I set a budget for one category only?
Yes. A budget covers all expenses, one category including its subcategories, or just one subcategory.
Do transfers to savings count against my budget?
No. Budgets count only expenses. Transfers between your accounts, savings goals, debts and balance adjustments are left out.
Can I budget for a holiday instead of a month?
Yes. Choose For a period and set a start date and, if you want, an end date. It doesn't reset every month; it runs for the whole period.
How much does it cost?
You can start free. A new account gets 7 days of Pro with 20 AI actions, and Lifetime is a single payment of 19 $ with everything unlocked for good.