Build a first budget you can actually trust.

Before you start

Set aside ten quiet minutes and have your current account balances nearby. You do not need a perfect list of every future expense. The first budget only needs to be honest enough to guide the next decision.

Use the currency in which you normally think and plan as the budget’s base currency. Individual accounts and targets can still use other currencies.

Add the accounts that fund daily life

Add the current and savings accounts whose money you want to divide among categories. These are budget accounts. Their balances become part of the amount available to plan.

Enter each balance as it is today. If your bank shows pending card payments separately, use the cleared balance and enter or import the pending transactions as uncleared. This keeps the account auditable.

Do not put investments, a home, or a long-term loan into the spending plan. Add those as tracking accounts or debts when you want them in net-worth reports without making their value spendable.

Shape a small category list

Categories describe what money is for. Begin with broad, useful groups instead of trying to model your entire life.

A strong first list might contain:

• Monthly bills: rent, utilities, internet, subscriptions.
• Everyday spending: groceries, transport, household, fun.
• True expenses: insurance, repairs, gifts, annual fees.
• Future priorities: emergency fund, travel, or another meaningful goal.
• Debt repayment: categories linked to debts you are actively paying down.

You can split, rename, hide, and reorder categories later. A category earns its place when seeing its available amount helps you make a decision.

Assign the money you have

Ready to Assign is the money in your budget that does not yet have a category. Work through priorities in this order:

1. Protect the immediate essentials

   Fund what must be paid before more income arrives: housing, food, transport, and minimum debt payments.

2. Look beyond this month

   Set aside part of known annual or irregular costs. Saving €50 each month for a €600 annual bill turns a surprise into a routine expense.

3. Fund flexible spending

   Give groceries, dining, hobbies, and other variable spending honest limits.

4. Stop when Ready to Assign reaches zero

   Zero means every unit has a job. It does not mean your accounts are empty.

If the plan wants more money than you have, reduce or postpone a lower priority. An unfunded target is useful information; a fictional balance is not.

Add targets where they remove guesswork

A target tells Pigget what a category needs; it does not create money. Add targets first for expenses with a clear amount or date:

• the same amount every month;
• a balance needed by a future date;
• a weekly or monthly spending allowance;
• a bill that repeats on a schedule.

Avoid adding targets to every category on day one. Too many simultaneous goals can make the plan noisy. Start with rent, recurring bills, true expenses, and one or two priorities.

Record and review the first spending

When a transaction is assigned to a category, its amount becomes activity and reduces that category’s available balance.

If you connect a bank, Pigget imports the accounts and transactions made available through the read-only connection. Review the imported rows and confirm their categories. Pigget remembers useful payee patterns, but you remain in control.

Transfers between two budget accounts should be linked as transfers. Moving €200 from current to savings changes where the money lives, not what it is for, so it should not reduce a category or create income.

Follow the first-week routine

For the first week, open Pigget briefly each day or two:

1. Review imported or newly entered transactions.
2. Confirm that each purchase has the right category.
3. Cover any overspent category by moving money.
4. Assign new income only after it reaches an account.
5. Compare one account’s cleared balance with the bank and reconcile it.

At the end of the week, ask one question: Does the available amount in each important category still describe what I can safely spend? If yes, your budget is working.