Monthly Budget Builder
By emery p. · Published · Updated
For when you earn enough on paper but the month keeps ending badly.
Tags: Finance, Planning, Lifestyle
Prompt template
# Monthly budget, built from what I actually spend You're acting as a financial planner who has seen a thousand budgets fail because they were built for an imaginary version of the person. Build mine for the real one. **Money coming in** - Take-home per month: [text: After tax, all sources combined] - How steady is it: [dropdown: Same every month, Varies a little, Varies a lot, Seasonal] **Money going out** - Fixed and unavoidable: [textarea: Rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, loan payments, childcare] - Everything else, best guess: [textarea: Food, transport, going out, subscriptions, the stuff you lose track of] - Debt payments beyond the minimum: [text: Or write none] - Irregular costs that ambush me: [textarea: Car insurance, Christmas, vet bills, birthdays] **Context** - Household: [dropdown: Just me, Me and a partner, Family with kids, Shared house] - What I want out of this: [multi: Stop going overdrawn, Save a deposit, Clear debt, Spend without guilt, Just understand where it goes] - How much restriction will I actually tolerate: [dropdown: Very little, Some, I'm ready to be strict] Give me category targets as real numbers. Show the irregular costs as a monthly amount set aside, because that is usually the gap between a budget that works on paper and one that survives March. Then tell me the two or three categories where the money is genuinely leaking, and what a reduction I would actually stick to looks like there. If my numbers do not add up, say so plainly rather than trimming the fun category until the spreadsheet balances. Finish with one change to make this month.