Use cases
The Household Purse (where it earns its place)
On The Household Purse: Bills → Spending → The Month. Fixed costs and daily spending meet in one honest number.
The Household Purse is the family's budget in one file: accounts, bills, envelopes, and the quiet running total of the month. It sits between spreadsheet and app: warmer than a spreadsheet, smaller and more honest than an app.
The couple who share money but not a shoebox
Two salaries, one rent, three subscriptions, groceries, and the vague awareness that something is off in the middle of every month. The Purse gives you envelopes (food, kids, transport, the fun budget) and shows the month's slope, week by week.
It is not YNAB and it is not trying to be. It is closer to a paper cashbook, with the arithmetic right.
The parent tracking a variable-income year
Some months are fat, some are lean. The Purse holds the average and the actual; the shortfall becomes visible before it becomes a crisis. Print it, put it on the fridge, live within it.
The tidy-minded person tracking one recurring category
Maybe you only want to see the grocery envelope tighten. Turn the other categories off. The Purse is comfortable being used for a slice of the picture.
What lives inside
- AccountsBank, savings, cash, credit card.
- EnvelopesCategories that hold monthly budgets and roll where you want them to.
- Recurring billsThe known monthly outflow, previewed a month ahead.
- The running monthOne glance: how the month is going.
Questions people ask
Is this replacing YNAB?
For a household that wants a small, private, one-time tool: yes. For a household that wants YNAB's whole methodology and community: no. Use the tool that fits the family, not the fashion.
Bank sync?
No. You type transactions in. The typing is the point: a household budget that you cannot feel is not a budget.
Multi-currency?
One currency per Purse. If you truly need two, keep two files.
A quiet, honest little cashbook, enough shape to see the month, no more.