The Bud blog
Money, minus the busywork.
Straight talk on budgeting without bank logins, splitting bills without the group-chat math, and actually keeping track of where your money goes.
The weekly budget review that actually takes ten minutes
A monthly review tells you what happened. A weekly one tells you what's happening, while you can still change it. Here's the ten-minute version, and the four questions that do most of the work.
How to pick expense categories for budgeting that you'll actually keep
Twenty-two categories feels thorough. It isn't. It's the reason your budget dies in week six. Here's how to pick categories around the decisions you actually make, and what to do with the awkward ones.
What a budget app without credit card linking actually gets you
Most budgeting tools ask for your card before they ask what you're trying to fix. You can skip that step entirely. Here's the honest trade you're making, and how to make the manual version survive past week two.
How to track subscriptions you forgot about on iPhone
There's probably a charge on your card right now that you can't name. Here's how to find every subscription you're paying for, work out which ones still earn their place, and stop the quiet ones creeping back.
Why budgeting apps don't work for most people (and how to fix it)
You downloaded the app, set it up, felt organised for a week, then quietly stopped opening it. That's not a discipline problem. It's a design problem, and it's fixable.
How to track spending on a trip (and what a travel expense tracker app should actually do)
You come home with a jacket full of receipts and four days that have blurred into one expensive smear. Here's the small, boring habit that fixes it, and what actually matters in an app you'll use on holiday.
How to split rent with roommates without it getting weird
The argument is never really about the $80. It's about the fact that nobody agreed on a rule before move-in day. Here's the setup that keeps a shared house friendly.
How to budget with irregular income (when no two months match)
Freelance, shift work, commission, tips. If your pay changes every month, the standard budget template breaks on contact. Here is the version that actually holds.
Budget spreadsheet vs app: which one do you actually keep using?
Spreadsheets are the purist's budget. They are also the one most people abandon by week three. The difference usually isn't the maths, it's the friction.
How to track cash spending (the money your bank app can't see)
Your bank app sees the twenty you took out and nothing after that. Cash is the blind spot in every automatic tracker. Here is how to close it without turning it into a chore.
Budgeting apps with no subscription: how to find one worth keeping
Everyone wants a budgeting app with no subscription, but the label hides a lot. Here is how to tell a genuinely free tool from one that just delays the paywall.
Are budgeting apps safe? What to check before you trust one
Whether a budgeting app is safe comes down to what it connects to and where your spending data ends up. Here is how to tell the careful ones from the risky ones.
How to stick to a budget (when you have quit every other time)
You do not abandon a budget because the numbers were wrong. You abandon it because logging got annoying. Here is how to make the habit survive past week two.
The best free budgeting apps for iPhone (and what free really means)
The App Store is full of free budgeting apps, and the word free is doing a lot of work. Here is how to tell the genuinely useful ones from the trials in disguise.
What is an AI budgeting assistant, really?
Every finance app claims to have AI now. Some of it is useful, a lot of it is a chatbot bolted onto a spreadsheet. Here is how to tell the difference, and what the assistant should really be doing for you.
Manual vs automatic expense tracking: which one actually sticks?
Automatic tracking sounds like the obvious winner. You link your bank, it does the work, you never lift a finger. So why do so many people quietly stop opening those apps?
How to split bills with friends without it getting weird
Splitting a bill is easy. Splitting it fairly, remembering who paid, and getting your money back without nagging is the hard part. Here is how to do all three.
Envelope budgeting on iPhone, without the actual envelopes
Envelope budgeting is one of the oldest tricks that still works. The paper part is what people quit. Here is how to keep the idea and drop the envelopes, right on your iPhone.
A budgeting app for couples that doesn't need your bank login
Merging money is a big step. Handing an app both of your bank logins is a bigger one. You can share a budget with your partner without doing either, and it works better than you'd think.
The fastest way to track expenses on your iPhone
Every expense tracker works in a demo. The one that survives real life is the one you can use in the checkout line without thinking. Here is how to make logging that fast.
The best budgeting apps that don't link your bank account (2026)
Bank-sync budgeting sounds convenient right up until it breaks, or until you realise you handed your bank login to a company you have never heard of. Here are the apps that skip it, and who each one is for.
Bud vs Splitwise: when you want budgeting and splitting in one app
Splitwise is the app everyone reaches for on a group trip. But it was never meant to budget your own money. Here is where each one wins, without the sales pitch.
How to budget without linking your bank account
You do not need to hand over your bank login to run a real budget. Here is a manual method that takes a few minutes a day and actually sticks.