Look at one complete month

  1. Check that your main spending accounts and transactions are recorded.
  2. Open an expense-by-category report for a completed month.
  3. Review the largest categories and any small purchases that add up.
  4. Look at upcoming bills so money already needed for payments is not mistaken for spare cash.

An account balance and a budget answer different questions. Your balance records money held or owed; a category budget compares spending with a planned amount. A positive balance does not mean all of the money is available to spend today.

Choose one useful limit

Start with a category you can influence, such as eating out. Use your actual history to choose an amount you can work with. If you spent £240 last month, a £220 plan may be more useful to test than an arbitrary £50 target.

Keep essential and irregular costs visible too. An annual bill may not appear in the month you reviewed, so check your reminders and your own records before deciding how much room you have.

Review while you can still change the month

Create the budget, then check it during the month rather than only at the end. If you are spending faster than intended, open the underlying transactions and see what is driving it.

Sometimes the right response is fewer discretionary purchases; sometimes the original plan missed a necessary cost. Use the records to make that distinction. The app shows your entries and plan, while you decide what to change.