A budget in CiviQ is a monthly spending limit for a category. You set it once, CiviQ tracks it automatically. When you're approaching the limit, you get an alert. When you've exceeded it, you know immediately.

💡 The hardest part of budgeting isn't the math — it's starting. Most people avoid budgets because they're afraid of what they'll find out. In practice, knowing is always better than not knowing. Even if the number is bad.

Create a budget

1
Go to Budgets in the sidebar
You'll see existing budgets or an empty state if you haven't set any up.
2
Tap 'Add budget' in the top right
3
Select a category
Pick the category you want to limit: Food & dining, Groceries, Transport, etc.
4
Enter your monthly limit
This is the most ₹ you want to spend in this category per month. Not sure what the right number is? Look at last month's spending and set a 10% lower target.
💡 Start by budgeting only your top 3-4 categories. Don't try to budget everything at once.
5
Tap Save
The budget is live. CiviQ immediately starts tracking your current month's spending against it.

How to set the right budget amount

Example
Hari spends about ₹6,400/month on food delivery. He wants to cut it down. He sets a budget of ₹5,000 — 22% lower. He doesn't aim for ₹2,000 right away because he'll fail and give up. ₹5,000 is achievable. After two months of hitting ₹5,000, he'll try ₹4,000. This is how budgeting actually works.

Understanding budget colors

  • 🟢 Green bar — under 75% of budget used. You're fine.
  • 🟡 Amber bar — 75-95% used. Starting to get tight.
  • 🔴 Red bar — over 95%. Almost at the limit.
  • ❗ Budget exceeded — you've gone over. CiviQ alerts you.

Budget pace — days remaining

CiviQ doesn't just show you how much you've spent — it tells you your daily average and how many days until your budget runs out at the current pace.

Example
You have a ₹5,000 Food budget. It's June 15th (halfway through the month). You've already spent ₹3,800.

CiviQ shows: 'At ₹253/day, your budget runs out on June 21st — 9 days before month end.'

That number tells you something specific. You need to cut to ₹142/day for the rest of the month to stay within budget.
💡 You can change a budget limit at any time. If you set ₹3,000 for Entertainment and then Coldplay is coming to India, go ahead and raise it for that month. No judgment.