Envelope budgeting · Self-hosted

Know what every dollar is doing.

Split your money into envelopes, track spending against each, and see the one number that matters: what's truly free to spend. Multiple banks and cards, shared budgets, and every entry reversible — free and open source.

Open Nickelpinch It's open source

Self-hostable · No ads · Free.

Household USD

Groceries

Dining

Transport

Extra · free to spend

↑ add a purchase — split it across envelopes and watch Extra move

How it works

Divide it, track it, see what's free.

The cash-envelope method without the cash — and with one number on top telling you where you really stand.

01

Set up your budget

Add your bank accounts and credit cards, then divide your monthly money into envelopes — groceries, dining, savings, whatever fits your life.

02

Log as you spend

A purchase — split across a few envelopes if you like — a deposit, a transfer, a card payment. Each one is a couple of taps.

03

See what's free

Every entry updates your balances and your Extra: the money that isn't already spoken for. Change your mind? Delete it and it cleanly undoes itself.

See the shape of it

Reports that show where the money actually went.

Every entry feeds a set of fast, built-in reports — spend by month across the budget, and any single envelope's trend over time. No spreadsheets, no exports.

Spend per month

Groceries

A bar per month — spot the creep before it's a problem.

Envelope trend

Over time

One envelope's spending, charted smoothly from first entry to now.

What's inside

Everything the envelope method needs. Nothing it doesn't.

Real budgeting mechanics — multiple accounts, credit cards, split purchases, savings that roll over — with the clarity of a single free-to-spend figure.

The “Extra” number

One figure for what's truly unspoken-for: your bank balances minus what's still budgeted, what's set aside, and what you owe on cards. Green when you're ahead.

Multi-bank & credit cards

Track as many bank accounts and cards as you carry. See each balance on its own, and rolled up into the combined picture — cards' owed amounts included.

Split any purchase

One $230 shop, three envelopes — food, clothes, household. Divide a purchase across up to five, and Nickelpinch does the assign-the-rest math for you.

Everything's reversible

Logged it wrong? Delete any transaction and every balance it touched is undone exactly — no manual fix-ups. Even the monthly reset can be walked back.

Rollover & monthly reset

Set a limit per envelope; unspent budget rolls into that envelope's savings, or resets — your call, per envelope. Start a fresh month in one reversible step.

Light & dark, phone-first

A blacked-out theme by default or a clean light one — follows your device, or pick in the corner. Thumb-friendly on a phone, roomy on a desktop.

Sharing, your way

Share a whole budget — or just one envelope.

Bring a partner in as a full member who logs money alongside you. Or hand a single envelope to someone — a kid's allowance — who sees only that, never your accounts or the rest.

It's a dial, not a switch: from a full member who adds purchases and manages envelopes with you, to a view-only guest scoped to one shared envelope and its history — and nothing else you own.

A shared-envelope guest can see…

The one envelope you shared

Its transaction history

Your bank accounts & cards

Your other envelopes

The combined “Extra” figure

Full members get the whole budget's money tools; sharing, settings, and deleting stay with you, the owner.

Why it exists

It started with a shoebox of envelopes.

The envelope method is honest: divide your money, spend from each envelope, and when one's empty, you're done for the month. But cash is a hassle, and every app that promised to do it digitally buried the idea under spreadsheets and features nobody asked for.

So I built the version I actually wanted — the envelope method kept simple, with one number on top that answers the only question that matters: how much is really free to spend right now?

It's been how I budget ever since. Hope it earns a place in your routine too.

Fair questions

Accounts, privacy, and running your own.

Do the people I share with need an account?

A free account owns your budget. Anyone you bring in signs in too — but a view-only guest only ever sees the single envelope you shared and its history, never your accounts or anything else.

Is my financial data private?

Your money lives inside your budget, scoped so members and guests see only what you grant them. And Nickelpinch is open source — host your own copy and the data never leaves a server you control.

Can it handle several accounts and cards?

Yes. Track as many bank accounts and credit cards as you like. Nickelpinch shows each balance on its own and rolls them into one combined figure — with what you owe on cards subtracted out.

Can I run my own copy?

Absolutely. It's MIT licensed and on GitHub — clone it, point it at your own server, done.