Set a budget for a month
A budget says what you plan to spend in a category, and the Budgets page sets it beside what you actually spent. This guide covers setting one, rolling money over, planning a month that hasn't started, and budgeting by the year.
On this page
What the Budgets page shows
Open Budgets from the navigation, under Cash flow. The month you are in opens first. The arrows next to its name move to the month before or after, and This month brings you back.
Once you have a budget, a summary sits at the top. The big number is Left: what your monthly budgets still allow this month. Beside it you see Budgeted, Spent and Spent outside any budget, the spending in categories that have no budget yet.
Below the summary, each budget is a row with a bar. The row says how much is left, or how much you are over, and the bar turns red once you pass the amount. Underneath, a line reads how much you spent of what was available, and what that category usually costs you. Clicking the category's name opens its transactions for the month.
At the bottom, No budget yet lists every category without a budget, the ones you spend the most in first, each with what you spent this month.
Set a budget for a category
- 1Find the category
Under No budget yet, choose Set a budget on the category's row. To change a budget you already have, click the pencil at the end of its row instead.
- 2Choose the period
Leave Monthly selected for an amount every month, or pick Annual for one amount for the year.
- 3Enter the amount
Type it under Amount. If you have spent in this category recently, a button reading Use and your usual amount fills it in for you. The usual amount is the average of your last three full months.
- 4Save
Choose Save. The category moves up into Monthly budgets or Annual budgets, and the summary updates.
A budget on a parent category covers its subcategories too. They appear as a small line under the parent's bar, each with what it spent, so one budget for Food can hold groceries and restaurants together.
To stop budgeting a category, open it with the pencil and choose Remove budget. The category goes back to No budget yet. Your transactions are not touched.
Roll over what's left
A monthly budget can carry money from one month to the next. In the budget's window, turn on Roll over what's left and choose Save. Unspent money then carries into next month, and an overspend comes out of it.
The row shows what moved with a small badge: carried over when money came forward, or owed from earlier when an earlier month went over. The amount you can still spend includes it.
This is how you save up for a bill that doesn't come every month. Budget 100 a month for car repairs with rollover on, and six quiet months later the row shows 600 available, not a string of unspent months. Rollover counts from the month you created the budget.
Plan a single month
Some months cost more than others: gifts in December, travel in August. You can give one month its own amount without changing the rest.
- 1Move to the month
Use the arrows next to the month's name. You can open a month that hasn't started yet. A line at the top says you're planning ahead.
- 2Open the budget
Click the pencil on the category's row. Below the rollover switch, the field labelled Only in and the month's name sets an amount for that month alone.
- 3Enter the amount and save
Type the amount and choose Save. The row shows a This month only badge. To go back to the usual amount, empty the field and save again.
When you plan ahead, carried-over amounts only count months that have finished. The months in between are assumed to go to plan, so a future month never shows money you are about to spend.
Budget by the year
Choose Annual for things you pay once or twice a year, such as insurance, holidays or a yearly subscription. An annual budget is one amount for the calendar year.
| Monthly | Annual | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | Every month | Once for the calendar year |
| Spending measured over | The month on screen | The year so far |
| Roll over what's left | Available | Not available |
| Only in a single month | Available | Not available |
| Counts in the summary at the top | Yes | No, it has its own section |
Annual budgets sit in their own section, Annual budgets. Each row shows what you have spent this year against the year's amount, and how much of that was this month. Clicking the category's name opens its transactions from the start of the year.
Fill every budget at once
Setting budgets one by one takes a while. Next to the month's name, choose Fill budgets. A window opens with two ways to fill them.
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| From usual spend | Sets each top-level category to the average of its last three full months, in whole amounts. Subcategories are covered by their parent. |
| Copy last month | Wherever last month allowed a different amount than this one, this month gets last month's. |
With From usual spend, the switch Only categories without a budget is on, so budgets you already set are left alone. Turn it off to move those to the usual figure as well. Annual budgets are never changed.
The window lists every budget it would write before anything changes, with the old amount beside the new one where there was one. When the list looks right, choose the button that reads Fill and the number of budgets. If there is nothing to fill, the window says so.
Budget by payday instead
Budgets reset on the first of each month unless you choose otherwise. If you think in paychecks, the calendar icon next to Fill budgets, labelled Budget cycle, opens When your budgets reset.
Under Cycle, pick Monthly, Twice a month, Every 2 weeks or Weekly. For the first two, set the day the period starts under Starts on day. For the last two, pick A payday: any past or future one will do, and the periods count from it. Choose Save.
Every budget is then measured over the new period, and the amounts stay as they are. The page talks about periods instead of months: the arrows move a period at a time, This period brings you back, and monthly budgets are listed under Budgets per period. Annual budgets still follow the calendar year.
Budgets only work as well as your categories. If a charge sits in the wrong one, see Categorize a transaction, and to file the same charge the same way every month, see Rules: file future transactions automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't my annual budget count in the Left figure at the top?
The summary at the top of the Budgets page adds up your monthly budgets only. An annual budget is measured over the whole calendar year, so it has its own section with its own bar, showing what you have spent this year against the year's amount.
I turned on Roll over what's left. Why isn't last year's money carried?
Rollover counts from the month the budget was created. Months before that had no budget, so there is nothing to carry from them. From then on, every finished month adds what was left, or takes away what was overspent.
Why does a future month show less carried over than I expected?
When you plan ahead, only months that have already finished count toward the carried amount. The current month and the ones before your plan are assumed to go to plan, so LumaLedger never promises money you are about to spend.
A charge counts against the wrong budget. How do I fix it?
Budgets read the category each transaction is filed under. Click the category's name on the Budgets page to see its transactions for that month, open the one that doesn't belong, and change its category. The budget updates straight away.
Can I budget a subcategory on its own?
Yes. A budget on a parent category covers its subcategories, which appear as a line under the parent's bar. You can also give a subcategory its own budget; its spending still counts toward the parent's too.
Keep reading
Categorize a transaction, and move several at once
Change the category of one transaction, move a whole selection to a category in one go, and file every charge from a merchant the same way from now on.
Rules: file future transactions automatically
Write an automation that files, renames, tags or ignores transactions that match your filters, check what it catches, and apply it to your history.
Connected and manual accounts: which to use, and how to add each
How to connect a bank so it syncs by itself, how to add a bank or card by hand when it can't be connected, and how to file transfers between the two.