Creating Your First Budget

Setting up your first BetterBudgets plan takes less than 5 minutes. Here's a walkthrough of the whole process.

Step 1 — Open the Budget Builder

From the home screen, tap New Budget (or the + button). This opens the Budget Builder, which walks you through three sections: Income, Expenses, and Debts.

Step 2 — Enter Your Income

Add every source of income you receive. For most people this is a single job, but BetterBudgets supports multiple income sources. Enter the gross (before tax) amount — BetterBudgets will factor in deductions based on your inputs.

Tip: Be accurate. The quality of your budget plan is directly tied to how accurately you enter your income.

Step 3 — Enter Your Expenses

Add your recurring monthly expenses — rent/mortgage, utilities, subscriptions, groceries, transportation, etc. You don't need every single line item. Focus on the fixed and predictable costs.

Step 4 — Add Your Debts

Enter any outstanding debts: student loans, car loans, credit cards, personal loans. For each one, enter the balance, interest rate, and minimum monthly payment.

This is where BetterBudgets' algorithm really goes to work — it builds the fastest possible debt payoff path into your plan.

Step 5 — Generate Your Plans

Tap Generate (or Build Budget). Within seconds, BetterBudgets returns up to 5 budget scenarios, each with a different approach to allocating your money. Plans are ranked and compared so you can see the tradeoffs.

Step 6 — Review and Save

Review each plan. Tap into any one to see the full year-by-year projection, your debt-free date, and your projected savings at each milestone. When you find the plan that fits your life, save it.

Once you've saved a budget, you can start tracking your real spending against it and exploring the Analytics Dashboard.