Budgets and the money questions you avoid
Set a monthly budget per category, let the table work out what's spent and what's left, and ask your money questions out loud instead of opening a spreadsheet.
Once your transactions are categorised, money questions take one sentence. Budgets turn "am I spending too much?" into a number.
What you need
- The Finance pack with the Budgets extra table, and at least one month of categorised transactions: Import bank statements.
How budgets work
Each finance_Budgets row is one category for one month: Month, Planned Amount and Category (Scope comes from the category). The table calculates the rest from the transactions linked to that budget through their Budget field:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
Actual Spent | The total of the transactions linked to this budget |
Variance | Planned minus actual. Negative means over |
% Used | How much of the plan is gone |
1. Set two budgets, not twenty (5 min)
Start with the categories you actually worry about. Made-up example:
Create budgets for November: Eating out 300, Groceries 600. Then link November's existing transactions in those categories to their budget.
2. Ask the questions (10 min)
How much did I spend on eating out in the last six months, month by month? Which months went over budget?
What are my five biggest payees this quarter?
Which subscriptions did I pay for in October, and what do they add up to over a year?
How does this month compare with last month, by category?
The answers come from your transactions, not estimates. Ask "which transactions is that?" if a number surprises you.
3. Make it a habit (5 min)
Add one line to your weekly review recipe:
Include each budget's % Used for this month, and flag any category over 80%.At the end of each month, copy the budgets forward and adjust:
Copy November's budgets to December. Raise Eating out to 350; I was over three months in a row.
December's transactions then link to December's budgets as they're sorted.
Check it worked
- Each budget shows a real
Actual Spent, not 0. - You got a month-by-month answer without opening a spreadsheet.
- The weekly review now flags categories that are running hot.
Next
Put an agent on the recurring work: Build a custom agent with skills.