Personal & shared finance
A budget that helps keep itself.
The Envelope Method is a budgeting technique that keeps itself. You give every dollar a job — an envelope — then let it know what you actually spend. It tells you how the month is really going, predicts how much you need to have on hand, takes a guess at next months bills and it keeps an honest tally with the people you share costs with, so nobody has to remember who paid for what.
Accounts & balances
Chequing, savings, credit, loans and cash — with running balances and net worth.
Plan vs actual
Envelopes grouped into needs, wants and savings, with a monthly plan you can hold yourself to.
Shared expenses
Split by percentage, exact amounts or evenly, then settle up and keep the history.
Here's how it goes
Five short steps. The first three take about ten minutes, the rest is just keeping up.
- 1
Add your accounts
Name each account and tell it what your bank shows today. That figure is held as a checkpoint, so anything you fill in later from earlier dates builds out your history without disturbing today's number.
- 2
Fill your envelopes
Pick the envelopes you actually spend on and set a monthly amount for each — needs, wants, savings and debt. Not sure what to put? It reads your past spending and suggests a figure.
- 3
Bring in what you've already spent
Upload a statement from your bank or PayPal and it sorts the rows into envelopes, spots the ones you've already recorded, and never keeps your card numbers or the file itself.
- 4
Split the shared stuff
Mark a purchase as shared and choose who with — by percentage, exact amounts or evenly. People without an account here can be added by name, and you can send them a tidy invoice.
- 5
Watch the month play out
The dashboard shows what's left in each envelope, the bills still coming, income you expect, and a running line of where your cash is heading. Settle up when you're square.
