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Budgeting in Budget Bandit is one task: take the money in Ready to Assign and hand it out to categories until nothing is left to assign. You are deciding what each dollar is for before you spend it.

Find Ready to Assign

Open the Budget page. Ready to Assign sits at the top. It is the money that has arrived in your accounts but has no job yet. When you add an account with a balance, that balance shows up here. Add a 2,400checkingaccountandReadytoAssignreads2,400 checking account and Ready to Assign reads 2,400. More on the number itself: Ready to Assign.

Assign money to categories

1

Cover what must be paid first

Start with the bills that come no matter what — rent or mortgage, utilities, minimum debt payments. Type the amount each one needs into its category’s assigned field. The category’s Available amount goes up by what you assign, and Ready to Assign goes down by the same amount.
2

Fund what you spend day to day

Move to groceries, gas, eating out, anything you spend on regularly. Assign what you expect to need this month. You are guessing the first time — that is fine. You will adjust as real numbers come in.
3

Give the rest a job too

Whatever is left still needs to go somewhere. Savings, a sinking fund for an annual bill, debt above the minimum, or a “fun money” category. Money with no job tends to leak.
4

Drive Ready to Assign to zero

Keep assigning until Ready to Assign reads $0. Zero is the goal — it means every dollar has a job. This is what “zero-based” means, and it does not mean your accounts are empty.

If you assign too much

If Ready to Assign goes negative, you assigned more than you have. Take money back out of a category — lower an assigned amount, or move money between categories — until Ready to Assign returns to zero or above. Moving money between categories is normal and expected. Plans change mid-month. See Assign and move money.

Set targets so categories tell you what they need

Instead of guessing every month, give a category a target: 600amonthforgroceries,or600 a month for groceries, or 1,200 saved by December for a trip. The category then shows how much it still needs, and Auto-assign can fill the gaps for you. Start here: Set a target.
Type amounts in dollars. 600 and 600.00 both mean $600. You can also type a quick sum like 40+25 into an assigned field and the app does the math.

Next

Your first week

Record spending, reconcile, and make the budget match reality.

Cover overspending

When a category goes red, here is how to fix it.
If a number looks off, see Budgeting troubleshooting.