Budgets you will actually keep
Published
A budget set on the first of January, in a mood of resolve, tends to be broken by the tenth. Not because you lack discipline, but because it was built from hopes rather than from data.
Start from what actually happened
Before you set a single limit, look at the last two or three months of real spending. You are not trying to judge it yet. You are finding out what normal looks like for you.
Budget the categories that surprise you
You do not need a limit for rent; it does not move. Put limits on the categories where you are regularly surprised by the total: eating out, shopping, small subscriptions, anything with the word "random" in your head.
Be a little generous
A limit tuned to the exact euro is a limit you will fail in a month with a birthday in it. Round up, leave some slack, and tighten later if you want to. A budget you stay within teaches you more than one you break by the fifteenth.
Let it talk to you
The point of a limit is to tell you something while you can still act on it. In Spend, each budget shows its progress as you spend, and you get a nudge at 80% and another at 100%, in the app and by email. Eighty percent with ten days left is a conversation. Eighty percent with two days left is a footnote.
Review, don't punish
At the end of the month, look at what went over and ask why. A one-off needs no action. A pattern means the limit was wrong, or the spending is a choice you should make on purpose. Either answer is fine; ignoring it is the only wrong one.