How the budget category calculator works
Why audit actuals
Planned budgets describe the person you intend to be; actual spending describes the current one. The gap between them — usually $200–600/month of untracked swipes — is where budgets go to die. One honest month of categorized transactions, run through this audit, converts vague guilt into three specific numbers.
Reading the three ratios
Needs over 50% is structural: housing above a third of take-home or a car payment masquerading as transport. Wants over 30% is behavioral: subscriptions, delivery fees, and the "small" purchases that aggregate. Savings under 20% is the compound interest of both — the category-audit page exists so each problem gets its own lever instead of one vague resolution to "do better."
The 80/20 of fixing it
In most audits, four line items — rent, car, groceries, delivery — explain 80% of the overage. Rent is a lease-cycle decision, car is a payment decision, groceries are a habit decision, delivery is a button decision. Fix the button first (instant), the habit second (two weeks), the payments third (annual).