A Monarch Money alternative without the subscription.
Monarch Money is where a lot of ex-Mint households landed. It's polished, it's well-run, and it costs about $99 a year and wants access to your accounts. The Household Purse is the version for people who wanted less of both.
Monarch is a fine product; a lot of good work went into it. This page is not a swipe at Monarch — it's a comparison for the household that migrated there after Mint closed and found themselves reaching for their wallet every January to renew a subscription for the privilege of budgeting.
What subscribing actually buys you
Monarch's subscription pays for the bank aggregation (which is expensive per household, because Plaid charges Monarch per account), the shared login for you and your partner, and the ongoing hosting. All three are legitimate costs — for that model. The Household Purse dodges all three by not being that model: no aggregation, no accounts, no hosting on our end.
Sharing without seats
Two people, one household, one budget: keep the HTML file in a shared folder (a family Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or a plain synced folder), or gift-forge a second copy dedicated to a partner. There is no seat count and no "premium plan for couples". A file is a file.
If you cancel
Monarch, like every SaaS budget, degrades or locks you out when the subscription lapses. The Household Purse never does — because there's nothing to cancel. You paid once; the file stays open forever.
The out
Thirty days, one e-mail, money back. The file stays with you either way.
Common questions
Does it have the polish of Monarch's dashboards?
Monarch has invested heavily in UI polish, and it shows. The Household Purse is deliberately quieter — less chart, more envelope. If a beautiful dashboard is the point, Monarch will beat this. If a durable envelope discipline is the point, this holds its own.
Can I use both?
A number of households do — Monarch for the aggregated view, the Household Purse for the actual monthly discipline. Nothing about the Purse touches your Monarch data or account.
Will you eventually add bank connections?
No. The absence of a bank connection is not a missing feature; it's the shape of the product. Adding it would break the promise the price is based on.
Family plan?
Not needed — there are no seats. The Every Blade Ever tier at $199 uncaps the household to any number of Blades, but the Household Purse alone is $49.
What if my partner and I want separate copies?
Gift-forge a second copy dedicated to them. Same knife, their name on the plate, their categories.