Organize your personal finances with the practical alternative to zero-based budgeting.
You're about to...
Know Your Numbers
My Paycheck
Rent
Student Loan
Car Insurance
Climbing Gym Membership
Netflix
5 fixed expenses
46% of income
$37,547.55 total
Death by a thousand budget categories
You can finally stop wasting your time (and money) maintaining a giant list of meaningless budget category limits.
$191
Per Day
Instead, here's one number.
Tend uses a simple system developed by Japanese housewives in 1904 called Kakeibo.
Not just your balances in one place...
Main Checking
Chase • Spending • synced 11 minutes ago
$14,098.23
Sapphire
Chase • Spending • synced 1 minute ago
Travel Rewards
Bank of America • Spending • synced 1 minute ago
$-3,130.38
...but also how much cash you really have.
You have a $5,967.85 surplus.
There is more than enough money in your checking accounts to pay off your credit cards and maintain your desired saftey buffer. You are free to spend or save the surplus money as you please.
| Total Checking | $14,098.23 |
| Total Credit Cards | $-3,130.38 |
| Safety Buffer | $-5,000.00 |
| Surplus | +$5,967.85 |
Upcoming Infrequent Payments
Car Insurance
Apr 28, 2025 • in 1 day
1Password Subscription
Jun 26, 2025 • in 2 months
Amazon Prime
Jul 26, 2025 • in 3 months
Property Taxes
Oct 26, 2025 • in 6 months
Surprises are great!
...except when they are bills you forgot.
When you see those big, irregular fixed expenses coming from a mile away, you are going to feel on top of things.
What's a normal month?
There's no such thing.
Other apps will make you hack your expenses into a monthly system. Tend embraces the ebbs and flows of real-life.
Fixed Expense Calendar
You will spend $3,488 on fixed expenses this month.
This is $412 more than your average monthly amount of $3,076.
Show Next 12 Months
Review Every Transaction
Because when you do... you find things!
You'll catch mistakes, double charges, and forgotten subscriptions — save that money.
simple = sustainable
which is why we only have 2 categories for transactions :)
Fixed
Payments you've already agreed to make at regular intervals (like monthly or annually) and for a set amount.
Examples: rent, subscriptions, memberships, loan payments
Discretionary
Everything else — any purchase you are not obligated to make.
Examples: groceries, dining out, clothes, transportation
This is so that you can...
Focus on what you can control.
01
Tend will add up your income for the year.
02
Then it will set aside all the money needed to pay fixed expenses for the year.
03
What's left is your discretionary allowance. This is what you can control with your day-to-day choices.
Humans are notoriously bad at predicting the future.
Tend will not make you budget (a.k.a. "guess") the places where you'll spend your discretionary money like other apps do — but it will show where you spent it.
Your discretionary spending is always analyzed separately from your fixed expenses.
Top Discretionary Merchants
| Merchant | Total |
|---|---|
| Amazon | $507.21 |
| Nordstrom | $200.77 |
| Thrive Market | $169.59 |
| Trader Joe's | $93.43 |
| Matching Half | $76.94 |
Reflect on the past day, week, month, and year to check if your spending is aligned with what's important to you.
And more...
- Know how much that vacation cost by grouping the transactions into an "album".
- Simulate big life changes by creating "What Ifs" and compare them with your current budget plan. (coming soon)
- Be notified when a fixed expense costs more than you expected. (coming soon)
- Add tags to transactions to track the types of transactions you care about. (coming soon)
- Upload documents (like invoices or receipts) to a transaction keeping all your financial docs in one place. (coming soon)
- Add notes to clarify the reason behind a purchase. (coming soon)
- Flag transactions that you want to investigate later. (coming soon)