The CalmDollar blog
Plain-spoken writing on zero-based budgeting, habits that stick, and sharing money without fighting. RSS feed.
How to export EveryDollar to Excel
Yes, you can get your EveryDollar budget and transactions into Excel. Export them as CSV with a free Chrome extension, open them in Excel the right way, and build a spending summary by category and month with one pivot table.
Read article →The no-budget method: how it works
The no-budget method, also called the anti-budget or pay-yourself-first budget, skips categories entirely. You automate savings and bills on payday and spend what's left however you like. Here's how to set it up, who it suits, and the signs it isn't working.
Read article →The 10-minute weekly budget review
A monthly budget gets set once and then quietly drifts. A short check-in once a week catches the drift while it's still small. Here's the checklist we use, step by step, and how long each part should take.
Read article →Introducing the retirement calculator
A free, private retirement calculator that shows the balance you're on pace for and roughly what it's worth as monthly income. No account, nothing saved, and it runs in your browser.
Read article →Sinking funds: budget for bills you saw coming
Car insurance, the vet, Christmas, the annual software renewal. None of these are emergencies, but they wreck budgets like they are. A sinking fund turns a once-a-year bill into a small monthly line, and here's how to set one up.
Read article →How to export your EveryDollar data to CSV
EveryDollar makes it easy to put data in and harder to get it back out. Here's how to export your budget and transactions to CSV, the fast way with a free browser extension and the manual way, so your history is yours to keep or move.
Read article →How to budget as a family without fighting
Most money fights are really visibility fights. A practical playbook for budgeting with a partner or family: one shared plan, personal spending nobody polices, and a short weekly review.
Read article →Why streaks make budgets stick
Budgets don't fail because of math. They fail because the habit dies. Here's the behavioral science behind streaks, and how a little friendly game design keeps you logging long enough for budgeting to work.
Read article →What is a zero-based budget? How it works
A zero-based budget gives every dollar of income a job before the month starts, until income minus everything you assign equals zero. Here's how it works step by step, a full example with real numbers, and what to do when the month doesn't go to plan.
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