Budgeting Basics

Budgetwise uses zero-sum budgeting — every dollar you earn gets assigned a job before you spend it.

How It Works

When income arrives, it goes into Ready to Assign. From there, you distribute it across your categories until Ready to Assign reaches zero. That’s it. Every dollar has a purpose.

The Monthly Cycle

1. Income arrives — Your paycheck, freelance payment, or any other income shows up in Ready to Assign
2. Assign your money — Distribute it to categories: rent, groceries, savings, entertainment
3. Spend from categories — When you buy groceries, the money comes out of your Groceries category
4. Adjust as needed — Overspent on dining out? Move money from another category

Ready to Assign

This is the holding area for unassigned money. The goal is always $0:

• Positive means you have money to assign
• Zero means every dollar has a job
• Negative means you’ve assigned more than you have — move money back

Caution: A negative Ready to Assign means you’re budgeting money you don’t have. Fix this before spending.

Assigning Money

1. Go to the Budget page
2. Click on a category’s assigned column
3. Enter the amount
4. Repeat until Ready to Assign is $0

Overspending

When you spend more than what’s budgeted in a category, that category goes negative. You have two options:

• Move money from another category to cover it
• Leave it and it will roll over as a negative balance next month (not recommended)

Month-to-Month

Unspent money in a category rolls over to the next month. If you budgeted $500 for groceries but only spent $400, you’ll have $100 already there next month.