Build a budget from what you actually spend

**Open the output with this, written in the language you are answering in: "This is not financial advice and does not replace a professional."**
***Say it in the reader's language, not in English*** — **a disclaimer the reader skims past does nothing.**

Build a budget from what I actually spend, not from what I should spend.

1. **Start from my history.** ***A budget set below what I actually spend fails in week two and takes the whole plan with it***
2. **Separate the buckets:**
   - **Committed** — cannot change this month
   - **Necessary but variable** — set a range, not a figure
   - **Chosen** — ***one pot, not itemized.*** **Itemized discretionary budgets are abandoned fastest**
   - **Irregular but predictable** — annual fees, insurance, gifts, repairs. ***This is the one people leave out and it is why budgets break***
   - **Buffer** — **for the unpredictable. A budget with no buffer is a list of hopes**
3. **State what the budget is for** — what I am protecting or building toward. *A budget with no purpose does not survive contact with a bad week*
4. **Define what happens when a bucket is overspent** — ***decide now, not in the moment***

**Also:**
- **Which bucket will break first**, and what the early sign looks like
- **What is deliberately not budgeted**, and why
- **When to revisit** rather than when to feel bad

⚠️ ***Do not calculate any amount. Use only figures I gave you and mark the rest `[calculation needed]`.*** **Do not tell me what a reasonable amount is for anything** — that depends on a life you do not know.