Category Budgets are a major update to budgeting in MoneyCoach. They make budgets feel closer to the way people actually spend: by category, month by month, with room to adjust when life does not follow the original plan.
Instead of creating a generic budget and manually deciding what it should track, you can now budget directly around your real MoneyCoach categories. Pick Food, Shopping, Transport, Entertainment, or any other category, set a monthly limit, and MoneyCoach automatically tracks matching expenses.
For the feature overview, start with Category Budgets in MoneyCoach. For the full workflow, open the Category Budgets Guides.
If you want the deeper reasoning behind the feature, read why we built Category Budgets in MoneyCoach, including the behavioral economics research on mental accounting, category budgets, and financial well-being.
Why this matters
Most budgets fail because they are too rigid. You set a plan at the start of the month, then one category needs more room, another category needs less, income arrives at a different time, or a leftover amount from last month should still matter.
Category Budgets are built for that reality. They give you a clear monthly limit per category, but they also include smarter tools for the moments when the plan changes.
What is new
Category Budgets introduce a new Categories view in Budgets. Your existing budgets are still available under Classic, so nothing disappears.
The new system includes:
- Automatic tracking from matching expense transactions.
- Parent category budgets with optional subcategory limits.
- Optional rollover for unused money or overspending.
- Current-month top-ups from available income.
- Budget transfers between categories.
- A clearer detail view with monthly progress, transactions, and history.
How users benefit
Category Budgets make it easier to answer practical questions:
- How much have I spent on food this month?
- Which categories are close to their limit?
- Can I give one category more room without increasing my total budget?
- Did last month's overspending carry into this month?
- Can I use this month's extra income to top up a specific budget?
The result is a budgeting system that is more automatic, more flexible, and easier to maintain.
Learn how to use Category Budgets
Start with setup, then learn how to review details, top up, transfer, and rebalance:
- How To Create Category Budgets in MoneyCoach
- How To Use Category Budget Details and History in MoneyCoach
- How To Top Up a Category Budget in MoneyCoach
- How To Transfer Between Category Budgets in MoneyCoach
- How To Rebalance Category Budgets in MoneyCoach
- Why We Built Category Budgets in MoneyCoach
Category Budgets and advanced budget actions are Premium features. Classic Budgets remain available separately for users who still prefer the original setup.
Learn more on the Category Budgets landing page, or jump straight to creating your first Category Budget.
