Budgeting in Earmarkr is two actions: assign money you haven't given a job to, and move money between categories when plans change.
Assign money
- Open Budget and pick the month.
- Click the Assigned cell on the category you want to fund.
- Type an amount and press Enter.
Ready to Assign drops by what you assigned. Nothing left your bank — you labelled it.
Keep going until Ready to Assign reads $0.00. That's the goal: every dollar has a job. A positive number means you have money doing nothing; a negative one means you've promised money you don't have.
Move money between categories
When a category needs more and another has spare:
- Click the Available figure on the category that needs money.
- Choose Move money.
- Pick the source category and the amount, then confirm.
Moving never changes Ready to Assign — the cash didn't enter or leave your budget, it changed jobs.
This is the normal response to overspending. Nothing is wrong with taking money from Dining Out to cover Groceries; that is budgeting.
Arithmetic in the amount box
The assign box takes more than plain numbers, which saves a calculator trip.
| You type | Result | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
250 |
Sets to $250.00 | Plain amount |
+50 |
Adds $50.00 to what's assigned | Topping up |
-25 |
Takes $25.00 back | Trimming |
1500/12 |
$125.00 | Spreading an annual bill over the year |
45*3 |
$135.00 | Three of something |
(120+80)/2 |
$100.00 | Splitting a shared cost |
Focus the box and the whole value is selected, so typing replaces it. If what you type can't be parsed, the field reverts and nothing is saved — no partial or wrong amount is ever written.
Budgeting a future month
Page forward with the month arrows and assign as normal. Money you assign ahead comes out of today's Ready to Assign, so you can only budget ahead with money you actually have.
Leftover money in a category rolls into next month automatically. You don't need to re-assign anything that's already sitting there.
A workable order
If you're not sure where to start:
- Bills with a due date — rent, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments.
- Things you'll definitely spend on — groceries, fuel, transit.
- Things that arrive once a year — set a goal and fund a twelfth each month.
- Debt beyond the minimums — see the debt payoff plan.
- Everything else — savings, fun, the categories that make the budget survivable.
Stop when Ready to Assign is $0.00.
If you can't get to zero
Ready to Assign is positive and you're out of ideas. Put it toward next month's bills, a debt, or a savings goal. Money with no job tends to get spent without a decision.
Ready to Assign is negative. You've over-assigned. Take money back out of a category — click its Available, Move money, and send it to Ready to Assign — until you reach $0.00.