Setting Up Your Budget

What is zero-based budgeting?

Zero-based budgeting means every dollar you have gets assigned a specific job before you spend it. You're not tracking where money went after the fact. You're deciding ahead of time where it goes.

Here's why that matters: if you have $1,500 and haven't assigned your dollars, you might see a concert ticket for $50 and think “yeah, I can afford that.” But can you? Maybe that $50 was the last of what you had for gas this week. Zero-based budgeting removes the guesswork. You know before you spend whether you have room. If you want the concert ticket, you make a conscious trade: take $50 from gas, entertainment, or wherever it fits.

No surprises, no mystery charges on the statement, no wondering if you'll make rent. You're not restricting yourself. You're making intentional choices instead of accidental ones.

The Ready to Budget number

In the top right of your budget screen is a number called Ready to Budget. This is the money waiting to be assigned. The amount and message show one of three useful states:

The goal every month is to reach exactly $0.00. Leaving money in Ready to Budget means those dollars don't have a job. Budget it all.

Click Ready to Budget to open the Quick Fill / Manualchooser. Quick Fill distributes your balance across your envelopes by a rule, such as filling unfilled envelope goals, repeating last month's money, or using last month's spending. Manual lets you pick one envelope and type an amount.

Envelope goals guide Quick Fill

Open an envelope name to set an envelope goal. ReadyCents supports weekly, biweekly, monthly, yearly, and custom envelope goals. Each goal can say whether you want to set aside another amount, refill up to an amount, or have a balance by a date.

Quick Fill does not guess. It reads those envelope goals and funds the envelopes that are short. If an envelope has no goal, ReadyCents leaves it alone so you stay in control.

The Assigned column