Payday Plan

Guides / Getting started

Set up your whole household budget in ten minutes, by typing

Most budgets die during setup, somewhere around the fortieth form field. Here's how to get a working household plan down in plain sentences instead.

October 23, 20267 min readJump to the steps ↓

Most household budgets don't fail because the idea was wrong. They fail on a Sunday afternoon, about forty form fields in, when someone realises they don't know the due date for the water bill and the whole thing gets saved as a draft forever.

Setup is the hardest part of budgeting, and it's mostly friction. So here's a different approach: get the plan down roughly, in plain sentences, in ten minutes. Fill in the details as real bills arrive. A rough plan you're using beats a perfect one you never finish.

What you need before you start

Less than you think.

  • Your take-home pay, and how often it arrives.
  • A rough list of bills. Rent or mortgage, utilities, phone, insurance, childcare, subscriptions. If you don't know the exact amount, guess. You'll correct it later.
  • Your debts: the balance, the rate and the monthly payment, roughly.
  • One or two things you're saving for.

That's it. You don't need statements open, and you definitely don't need last year's spending categorised.

The ten minutes

Here's a made-up household doing it, minute by minute. They're paid $3,000 every other Friday.

Minutes 0 to 1: the paycheck. One sentence.

I get paid $3,000 every other Friday

Minutes 1 to 5: the bills. Type them the way you'd say them out loud, as one list. Amounts, due days and "autopay" where it applies. Guesses are fine; say "about" if it helps you remember which ones are guesses.

Rent $1,900 on the 1st, autopay. Car payment $420 on the 6th. Electric about $140 on the 9th. Phone $120 on the 12th, autopay. Internet $80 on the 18th. Childcare $1,100 on the 26th. Car insurance $540 every 6 months.

Minutes 5 to 7: the debts. Balance, rate, payment.

Visa $4,800 at 24.99%, $150 a month on the 21st

Minutes 7 to 8: a goal.

Save $2,400 for a trip next July

Minutes 8 to 10: check it over. Read back what you've got. Is anything big missing? Does the total look roughly like what leaves the account each month? Fix anything obvious and stop.

Here's roughly what they end up with:

Per month
Income (26 paychecks a year ÷ 12) $6,500
Bills, including $150 to the Visa and $90 a month set aside for the six-monthly insurance $4,000
Trip goal ($2,400 over 10 months) $240
Left for groceries, gas and everyday spending $2,260

Is it perfect? No. The electric is a guess, groceries haven't been planned, and the water bill is missing entirely. But the big picture is there, and it's already more useful than no plan.

Step by step

Do it in Payday Plan

Here's where those sentences go, and what you'll see.

  1. Start in the right box. On your first sign-in, the Welcome screen offers Let's start. Tap it and you reach Tell us about your money, a large box made for exactly this. If you skipped that, use the bar at the top of The Plan ("Tell Payday Plan what changed…") and tap Go; it opens the same kind of box.

    Step 1 of 2 of the Welcome flow, Tell us about your money: a large text box, example buttons to try, Attach a list (CSV), Speak and Read it.
    Tell us about your money: one big box, a few examples to tap, and Speak on a phone.
    The Welcome screen: a progress line reading Welcome, Your money, Your schedule, Done, the heading Hi Alex Rivera. Let’s get your money into one clear plan, and the buttons Let’s start and I’ll look around first.
    The first sign-in. Let’s start takes you to Your money, where you type or paste the list.

  2. Type or paste everything. Put in the paycheck, bill, debt and goal sentences from above, all at once if you like. As you type, a So far: line under the box shows what it has picked out, and how many things it still needs you to pick. The TRY: buttons underneath fill in an example if you're stuck. A spreadsheet goes in with Attach a list (CSV).

    The Tell Payday Plan sheet with three requests typed in. Under the box, So far shows Change bill Electric and Change bill Car registration, plus 1 thing to pick, above example buttons and a Read it button.
    The So far line updates as you type, before anything is read or saved.

  3. Tap Read it. Each thing it understood becomes a card with a checkbox: Add bill, Change bill, Add paycheck, Add debt, Add goal. Fix an Amount or Due day right on the card, and untick anything it got wrong.

    The Tell Payday Plan review: Here are 4 changes. Nothing’s saved until you say so. Four ticked cards (Change bill Netflix to $18.99, Add bill Vet $240 due the 18th, Change bill Hulu, Add bill Peacock) each have Amount and Due day fields, above Start over and Make 4 changes.
    Every card can be unticked or edited. Make 4 changes saves only the ticked ones.

  4. Answer any questions. When a word could mean two of your bills, it asks instead of guessing, such as Skip which one? with a button for each. Pick one and it remembers that word for next time. (Words it has learned are listed in Settings, under Words Payday Plan learned.)

    The Tell Payday Plan sheet asking One thing to pick before anything changes, with the question Skip which one? and buttons for Dance tuition, Dance comp and Neither.
    When a word matches two bills, it asks. Your answer is remembered for next time.

  5. Save it. Tap Make 4 changes (the number matches the ticked cards). If something went wrong, Undo all takes the whole batch back for a day.

  6. Finish the Welcome flow. Tap Next: your schedule. On Fit it into your week, tap Create my calendar link, then Turn on notifications for reminders on your phone, and type your partner's name and email under Your partner and tap Invite. Tap Finish.

    Step 2 of 2, Fit it into your week: Your calendar with Create my calendar link, Reminders on your phone with Turn on notifications, and Your partner with Name and Email fields and Invite.
    Fit it into your week: a calendar link, phone reminders and an invite for your partner, all on one screen.

Then let reality fill it in

Over the next month or two, the plan gets better without another setup session:

  • When a bill arrives, record what it actually was. That's how the guesses get replaced.
  • When you remember something, add it in a sentence. "Water bill $90 every other month."
  • When something changes, say so. "Netflix is $18 now."
  • After three months, replace each estimate with the average of what actually came out.

That's how the plan becomes honest: in small corrections, not a big upfront effort.

Why sentences work better than forms

A form asks you to know everything about one bill before you can move on. A sentence lets you say what you know and skip what you don't. "Car insurance, $540, every six months" is a complete thought even without the exact due date.

Typing a list also matches how people actually remember bills: in a rush, out of order, prompted by each other. "Oh, and the gym." That's easy to add to a sentence and annoying to add to a form.

Try it: Payday Plan was designed for setup like this. In the Welcome flow, the bar on The Plan, and + New (on a phone, the + in the middle of the bottom bar), you can type what you've got in plain words or paste a list. A built-in reader picks out amounts, due days, rates, dates, how often and autopay, with no AI involved. Nothing is saved until you've ticked the cards you want and tapped Make N changes.

A few more things that help during setup:

  • When two names could match, like "skip dance" in a household with both Dance tuition and Dance comp, it asks rather than guesses, and remembers your answer next time.
  • A CSV with a header row (Name, Amount, Due, Autopay) becomes one line per row.
  • Bill emails can be forwarded to bills@paydayplan.app from the address you sign in with. Each one is read for the biller, the amount due and the due date, and waits for one of you to approve it.
  • Photos and PDFs of bills can be attached too. These are the exception to "no AI": reading an image needs an AI model.

After the ten minutes

The first-sign-in flow is short: describe your money, then fit it into your week with a calendar link, phone reminders and an invite for your partner. If you skipped any of it, it's worth doing the same day.

  • Calendar: a private calendar link puts bills, paydays, goals and promotion end dates into Google or Apple Calendar, so you see them without opening anything. It's in Settings, under Your calendar: tap Create my calendar link.
  • Your partner: the owner adds them in Settings, under People in your household: tap Add your partner, enter a name and email, and tap Add. They get a sign-in link by email.
  • The Setup guide (under your name at the top right, or More on a phone) has a four-phase checklist for everything else, and steps marked with a ✦ tick themselves once the app sees they're done.

If you bank with Crew, the Pockets page links to a printable setup sheet: every pocket, card and Autopilot rule to type into Crew, in order. And if you'd like bills to tick themselves when they clear, there's an optional read-only bank connection through SimpleFIN Bridge, a third-party service that costs about $15 a year. It's not needed to get started.

This guide is general information about planning a household budget, not personal financial advice. Your numbers, rates and situation are your own — check the terms of your accounts before you act.

Keep reading

More guides

Getting started

The 20-minute month-end recap (and the three questions it answers)

A month is only useful if you learn something from it. A short, repeatable review that turns last month's surprises into next month's plan.

October 25, 2026 · 6 min read

 Paychecks

Plan the month by paycheck, not by calendar

Your bills run on the calendar but your money arrives on paydays. Line them up by paycheck and the tight weeks stop being a surprise.

November 1, 2026 · 8 min read

 Paychecks

The extra paychecks: what to do with a three-paycheck month

Paid every other week? Twice a year, a month brings a third paycheck. Here's how to spot those months now and give that money a job.

November 1, 2026 · 6 min read

Your next payday could come with a plan.

Payday Plan is opening to households a few at a time. Ask for a spot, or sign in if you’re already in.

Get access → Sign in