The Climb method

Climb is a zero-sum budget: you only budget money you actually have, and every dollar has a destination before you spend it.

Every dollar has a destination

When a paycheck lands, log it to the Income category and it arrives in Available to Budget. From there, you assign it to categories: Rent, Groceries, Fun Money, whatever your life is made of.

Think of each category as an envelope. The money you budget into it is what you can spend from it. When you swipe your card at the grocery store, that transaction draws down the Groceries envelope, not some abstract monthly limit.

Refunds work in reverse. Return the milk you bought last week, and the money can go right back into Groceries, the same envelope it came out of.

Zero is the goal

Available to Budget should sit at zero once you're done assigning. Not because you've spent everything, but because every dollar has a destination. Money waiting in a Savings category has one too.

If Available to Budget is positive, some money has nowhere to go yet. If it's negative, you've assigned money you don't have, so take it back out of a category.

Moving money is normal

Plans meet reality. If Dining Out runs dry and Groceries has plenty, move money between them and get on with your week. That's not a failed budget. That is budgeting. The only real rule: cover overspending when it happens, so your envelopes keep telling the truth.

What's left rolls forward

Whatever a category has left at the end of the month carries into the next one. Envelopes with a long-term destination (car repairs, holidays, insurance) are supposed to grow for months before they get spent.