Budgets

A Budget gives one category a monthly spending allowance — like putting cash in an envelope labeled “Groceries” at the start of the month. As transactions come in categorized as Groceries, they draw down that envelope. What’s left tells you what you can still spend; what’s gone tells you where the month went.

Because categories form a tree, you can budget at whatever level makes sense: one allowance for all of Food, or separate ones for Groceries and Dining Out underneath it.

Rollover

By default, an unused envelope resets each month. Rollover changes that: whatever’s left in a category’s envelope at month’s end carries forward instead of disappearing, so a light month on Gifts leaves more room in the next one. You choose which categories roll over — it’s not a global switch, since some envelopes (like Groceries) make sense to reset monthly, and others (like an annual Travel fund building up all year) don’t.

Why envelopes instead of a single spending limit

One number for “total spending” tells you almost nothing about where to cut back. An envelope per category means the moment you’re over, you know exactly which part of your life it’s coming from.

Next: saving toward something specific, separate from monthly spending.