An easy, smart spreadsheet for
household budgets
"I can't imagine a world where I don't have A Real Budget to manage my family's finances." - Ben Pitts, Chief Revenue Officer at PlanIQ
"I can't imagine a world where I don't have A Real Budget to manage my family's finances." - Ben Pitts, Chief Revenue Officer at PlanIQ
With A Real Budget you manage your money based on when you will be using it instead of when your paydays happen. Everything you need to manage your household finances is in this software.
Your money is your future. Plan it that way with A Real Budget.
Income is on auto pilot. Recording deposits is the major part of managing your incomes.
Bills are on auto pilot. Payments are scheduled for you. Always remember to make payments on time.
Your sinking funds are on auto pilot. You set the goals and the rest is done for you.
Your savings are on auto pilot. Building an emergency fund and other short-term savings is amazingly easy.
Plan your way out of debt with a payoff plan that fits comfortably in your budget.
One debt ... choose to make a payment amount or a number of payments
Debt snowball ... customize a plan to pay off multiple debts as quickly as your budget can handle
Credit card debt ... Either pay off as one debt, or use the credit card amortization feature to automate the payoff plan
Stay on top of your creditworthiness with your current debt-to-income ratio.
Quickly see how a new debt payment would impact your DTI.
Share your current DTI with lenders in print or with a text file.
Play "What if?" with anything in your budget. Immediately see the effect of a financial change before you commit.
Safely make budget changes by cloning:
- the entire budget
- an income
- a bill (shown at left)
Plan short-term savings by adding:
- a sinking fund
- a saving as a percent of an income, a fixed monthly amount, or unscheduled
1. How much? Decide how much pocket money you need each week. The goal is to have no spending money left at the end of each week.
2. When? Pick a weekday when you will get your weekly allowance. (When paydays happen is irrelevant to when your allowance happens.)
3. Automate. Set up your allowance in A Real Budget. The amount you will need for each month is automatically calculated and set aside.
4. Enjoy. Get your allowance each week. You do not plan how you will spend your allowance. Nor do you keep track of how the money was spent.
Your checking account is managed as an integral part of your budget.
In addition to the unallocated balance available for use, the money you have set aside for any purpose, including sinking funds and short-term savings, stays in your checking account. A Real Budget keeps track of how the money in your checking account has been allocated.
The checking account transaction register is maintained for you. The balancing of monthly bank or credit card statements is simplified. Download and use transaction files from any bank or credit union website, that offers .CSV files, to automate balancing.
1. Bills. Payments are automatically scheduled.
2. Savings. Set asides for sinking funds and short-term savings are automatically scheduled.
3. Checklist. The Pay Bills checklist consolidates all payments and set asides.
4. Schedule. You pay bills twice monthly regardless of when paydays happen.
A Real Budget simplifies the management of credit card use by supporting a four-step approach to handling credit card activity. The consistent advantages of this four-step method are:
- not paying any interest or fees;
- avoiding having to pay fraudulent charges;
- always clearly seeing how your charging activity is affecting your finances.
The reconciling of monthly credit card statements is simplified. Download and use transaction files from any credit card website, that offers .CSV files, to automate reconciliation.
1. Investment. Set up an account with an investment vehicle of your choice.
2. Automate withdrawals. Set the investment account to automatically withdraw monthly deposits from your checking account.
3. Deposits. Add a bill in A Real Budget to make automatic monthly payments to the investment vehicle.
4. Done. Watch your long-term savings grow.
With family. Your budget is easy to understand by everyone.
Comfortably. Everyone can see the entire, twelve month financial plan.
At a distance. Email the entire budget, share a printed copy or review your plan with deployed members on Zoom.
With confidence. Your net cash flow (income minus expenses) shows the direction of your budget ... good to go (in the black) or needing adjustment (red negative numbers).
You have a rich set of charts available for a visual presentation of your finances.
A Real Budget has changed our lives for the better. We can now see exactly where our money is going at a glance and set funds aside every month without a complete lifestyle change.
We never had a manageable way to keep a handle on our finances and the impact of our choices. The picture that A Real Budget creates helps us to make well informed and objective decisions. Love it!
I really love the ability to forecast out to plan. Compared to what I was used to in terms of dwelling in the past of what was spent, I like the
future focus and
preplanning aspect of A Real Budget!
A Real Budget is done and being used by a small group who enjoy using the software. As soon as the user guide is completed, the program will be released for general distribution. (Click here to see the parts of the user guide that have been completed.)
Click on the button below to sign up to be one of the first to find out when that happens.
I will never share your email address or any other information with anyone. No way. No how. Doing so would violate the trust we need to build so we can begin a conversation about this new way of managing money.
... George