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Budgets

Budgets help you set spending limits for different categories and track how well you’re sticking to them throughout the month.

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How Budgets Work

When you create a budget, you assign a spending limit to a category. As you spend money in that category, Sure tracks your progress and shows you:
  • Amount spent so far this month
  • Amount remaining in your budget
  • Status indicators showing if you’re on track, near your limit, or over budget
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Setting Up Category Budgets

Each category can have its own budget. For example, you might set:
  • Food & Dining: $500/month
  • Entertainment: $200/month
  • Transportation: $300/month
Sure shows helpful daily suggestions like “$29.91 suggested per day for 11 remaining days” to help you pace your spending. When editing a subcategory’s budget, you’ll see “Shared” as the placeholder text. Leave the field empty or set it to $0 to share the parent category’s budget. Hover over the field to see the tooltip: “Leave empty to share parent’s budget”.

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Subcategories and Shared Budgets

You can organize your spending further with subcategories. For example, “Food & Dining” might include:
  • Coffee & Takeout
  • Groceries
  • Restaurants
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Individual Budgets

Give each subcategory its own limit. This works well when you want strict control over specific types of spending.

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Shared Budgets

Leave a subcategory’s budget empty to share the parent category’s budget. This is great when you want flexibility across related expenses. Example: Set “Food & Dining” to $500, but leave the subcategories without individual limits. Now all your food spending draws from the same $500 pool, whether you’re buying groceries or eating out. When a subcategory shares its parent’s budget, you’ll see a “(shared)” label next to the budget amount, making it clear which subcategories are drawing from the shared pool.

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Mixed Approach

Combine both methods. Set a fixed budget for some subcategories while others share the remaining amount. Example:
  • Food & Dining: $500 total
  • Restaurants: $100 (fixed limit)
  • Groceries and Coffee share the remaining $400
When you set an individual budget for a subcategory, that amount is “ring-fenced” from the parent budget. Only that subcategory can use it, and it won’t be available to other subcategories sharing the parent’s budget. How it works:
  • Restaurants has $100 remaining ($100 budget - $0 spent)
  • Groceries and Coffee share $350 remaining ($400 shared pool - $50 spent between them)
  • The parent Food & Dining shows the total remaining across all subcategories

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Status Indicators

Sure uses color-coded badges to show your budget status at a glance:
  • On Track (green) - You’re within budget and pacing well
  • Near Limit (yellow) - Getting close to your limit
  • Over Budget (red) - You’ve exceeded your budget

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Tips for Effective Budgeting

  1. Start simple - Begin with just a few major categories before adding detail
  2. Review monthly - Check your budgets at the end of each month and adjust as needed
  3. Use shared budgets for categories where you want flexibility between subcategories
  4. Use individual limits when you need strict control over specific spending