Budgeting

FinanceByScott uses envelope budgeting: instead of staring at one big balance, you divide your money into purpose-based buckets and track each one.

Logical accounts (envelopes)

A logical account is an envelope — a named slice of your real money set aside for a purpose (groceries, rent, savings goals). Your actual account balances are allocated across these envelopes, so you always know how much of your money is already spoken for.

Budget categories and allocations

Budget categories group your spending, and monthly allocations set how much you intend to put toward each one in a given month. As transactions come in, you see spending against those allocations — what's left in each envelope and where you've gone over.

Why it helps

Envelope budgeting answers the question a single balance can't: "I have money, but is it available, or is it already meant for something?" Pair it with recurrences to project envelopes forward.