Envelope Budgeting System

Follow the envelope method with Budget Zen.

The Envelope Budgeting System is a great and simple way to manage and track your finances.

What is it?

It is an easy-to-follow system that allows you to allocate money into different envelopes for different expenses. This way, you are able to keep track of how much money you have for certain expenses, so you don't overspend. Once the envelope is empty, you know you've reached your budget limit for that category.

This system also encourages saving and budgeting by allowing you to set aside some of your income for savings. By having a physical envelope with cash in it, it can help motivate people to save and stick to their budget. Additionally, this system can help reduce stress because it helps individuals stay on top of their finances and make sure they have enough money in their accounts for bills and other expenses.

In today's digital world, though, it's not as practical.

How does Budget Zen achieve it?

The budgets in Budget Zen work as an envelope in the envelope budgeting system.

You create budgets (envelopes) for each of your spending categories per month and set a budget limit for each one. You will then be able to track your spending in each budget and get an overview of how much you've got left (and how much you've spent) at any time.

Budget Zen makes it easy to stay on top of your budget and make sure you're not overspending. You can easily see how much money you have left in each envelope and adjust your spending accordingly. When you open the app you'll quickly see how much money you've got left in each budget and how close you are to spending it. There's also a neat visual indicator that fills up as the envelope gets empty (the budget gets full), and switches from green to red once the limit is reached.

Budgets will be automatically copied to the next month, and you are able to mark expenses as recurring so they're also copied over when the next month comes along. That helps tremendously with planning for things like emergency savings, debt pay-offs, or vacations.

The app also makes it easy to track your spending over time. You can view your spending history for each envelope and get an overview of your budget over time. This way, you can easily see where you're spending the most money and make adjustments to your budget accordingly, each month.

What about privacy?

Budget Zen is an open source, end-to-end encrypted product, meaning not even we can see your data, only you. That is not the case with most budgeting or expense management tools.

How to try Budget Zen?

You can check out and sign up for the 30-day free trial at the PWA/web app.