Monetr

Most budgets fall apart on the bills that land between paychecks. Monetr works the other way around, setting money aside for each recurring expense as its due date approaches, so the number on screen is what is genuinely free to spend before the next paycheck arrives.

It takes its cues from Simple, the banking app that shut down, and rebuilds that idea as software anyone can run. Account data arrives through Plaid for automatic updates, or as OFX files exported from a bank by hand for people who would rather not link anything.

The application stays close to a few ideas rather than growing into an accounting suite.

• Recurring expenses: each one is funded gradually on whatever interval it repeats.
• Paycheck budgeting: allocations follow your pay cycle instead of a calendar month.
• Free to spend: the headline balance is what remains once every commitment is covered.
• Forecasting: projected balances show when a shortfall is coming and when it clears.
• Mobile first: the interface installs as a web app on both desktop and phone.

Self-hosting is free and documented, and the whole source tree is public. Contributors need their own Plaid sandbox credentials, after which a single make develop command brings up the local environment and make clean tears it back down. The hosted version starts with a thirty day trial.