No bank logins, ever
A household budget that survives contact with real life.
Bread Jar is envelope budgeting for a family. Plan every monthly expense, watch the cash flow ahead, and let unspent category money build up for the big things you know are coming.
Ready to assign
$1,523
Cash today
$8,410
Spent this month
$4,286
Lowest point ahead
$1,190
Housing
$3,240
Cars & transport
$980
Investments
$1,610
Family & education
$740
Budget and spending
- Groceries$624 of $800
- Electric$94 of $180
- Dining out$168 of $150
- Fuel$70 of $200
The dashboard: what is left to assign, what each part of life costs, and where this month’s spending has got to.
- Groceries$1,100.00 assigned$680.00
- Mortgage fixed$2,400.00 assigned$2,400.00
- Auto Maintenance$150.00 assigned$1,850.00
- Next Car Fund$685.72 assigned$8,228.64
Envelopes roll forward
Whatever a category does not spend stays in it. Put $150 a month into Auto Maintenance and the tyres in year two are already paid for — no loan, no scramble, no month where everything lands at once.
See the month before it happens
Every fixed payment and every rent cheque is placed on the day it lands, so the balance ahead is a line rather than a hope. The lowest point is marked, because that is the day that decides whether the plan works.
Cash, six months ahead
Lowest point $1,190 on 12 Mar
Groceries
August · $800 assigned
spent$339.20$381.38
- Corner Markettoday · Groceries−$42.18
- Whole FoodsMon−$86.40
- Corner MarketSat−$31.05
What did you spend on?
Groceries
Recorded in the shop, not at the kitchen table
Pick the category, key the amount, done — and the envelope has already moved by the time you put your card away. Or photograph the receipt and let it read the total, on the phone itself, with the photo kept alongside the transaction so you can check the charge against the original months later.
No bank connection to set up and nothing to reconcile later — whoever spent it records it, wherever they are.
Built for how a household actually spends
Every dollar gets a job
Assign the money you actually have. What is left over is the only money that is truly free — not a number you hope is right.
Cash flow you can see
Recurring bills and paychecks project your balance forward day by day, so you know before the mortgage clears whether it holds.
Fixed costs fund themselves
Mortgage, car payment, tuition. Mark them once and they fill the moment a new month opens. You never re-decide a contract.
Every home and car, separately
Two cars do not share a fuel budget. Each property and vehicle gets its own categories — and a rental shows what it actually nets.
Shared with your household
Invite your partner or your kids. Everyone records against the same plan, so nobody is guessing what is left.
Three taps on your phone
Tap the icon, key the amount, save. Recording the shop on the way out of the car park takes seconds.
Even the receipts can budget themselves
Email an expense in and it lands in the right envelope. Tell it once where a bill belongs and the next one files itself. Invite the household with a link. Nothing here needs your bank password — you record what you spend, and Bread Jar does the arithmetic.
Fw: Your energy bill is ready
Filed under Electric — Maple Street, by a remembered rule
Always file mail like this the same way
The next one from the same sender, for the same account number, files itself.