TidyCents. Budgeting that finally makes sense.
A closer look · TidyEnvelopes

Give your money a job. See what each envelope has left.

Like the idea of cash envelopes, but pay for groceries with a card? TidyEnvelopes puts those spending categories on screen. Here is how it compares with paper envelopes, what you enter yourself, and how backups work. It is our own studio's app, sold through Applings Studio.

By the TidyCents team, who also built the free Money Leak Score.

What cash envelopes get right

Before getting into the app: credit where it's due. The envelope method works, and it works for a real psychological reason. Cash in an envelope is a hard limit — you can't overspend "Groceries" by accident when the envelope is visibly, physically empty. No notification, no willpower required, no app to ignore. It's one of the few budgeting systems that makes the constraint impossible to not notice.

When your spending moves beyond cash

A card payment, an online order, or a subscription renewal does not change the cash in a paper envelope. You need a way to record those purchases too. A spreadsheet can do that, and a digital envelope app offers another approach: log each expense against its category and see the balance left to spend.

TidyEnvelopes brings envelope balances and recorded card purchases into the same view.

What it actually is

One HTML file, not an app-store download or a service with a login. Money gets divided into virtual envelopes the way cash would be — Groceries, Rent, a vacation fund — and each purchase logs against one of them. No server means no bank sync and no automatic import; you're recording what you spent the way you'd have counted cash back into an envelope, just faster.

Three moments, cash vs. app

Three everyday situations to help you compare paper envelopes with a digital version.

TidyEnvelopes Funding Plan screen
Splitting a paycheck

Funding your envelopes

With cash: count and divide the actual bills into envelopes, by hand, every single payday.
With TidyEnvelopes: set a Funding Plan once — flat amounts or a percent, per envelope — and every future paycheck splits itself the same way. You can preview it against any number before you commit to it.

TidyEnvelopes Add Expense screen
An envelope running short

The shortfall moment

With cash: the envelope's empty. That's the whole system — no more spending from it until next payday, no exceptions.
With TidyEnvelopes: it offers to cover the shortfall from another envelope automatically, and logs the transfer so it isn't an invisible fix — you can still see exactly what happened and undo the habit if it becomes one.

TidyEnvelopes Import screen
Trusting the backup

Where it all actually lives

With cash: keep a separate record if you want a history of your envelope balances and spending.
With TidyEnvelopes: export a backup file and keep it somewhere safe. Review the import details before replacing your current data.

The rest of it

Three more screens, quickly.

TidyEnvelopes Envelopes screen

Every envelope, one screen

Spending envelopes and savings-goal envelopes side by side, each showing what's available or how close a goal is to its target — no digging required.

TidyEnvelopes Transactions screen

Every dollar, traceable

Filter by envelope or date, page through instead of endless scrolling — the kind of thing you only miss once you've needed it and it wasn't there.

TidyEnvelopes Settings screen

Make it feel like yours

Currency symbol and position, date format, light or dark. Small details, but they're the difference between an app that feels generic and one that feels like your own ledger.

Cash, spreadsheet, or app — the actual trade-offs

Not a hypothetical comparison — these are the four moments where we actually noticed a difference, tried honestly across all three.

 Physical envelopesSpreadsheetTidyEnvelopes
Splitting income Count and divide actual bills into envelopes, by hand, every payday. A formula you set up once and hope you don't disturb. Set a Funding Plan once — every future paycheck splits itself.
A short envelope It's empty. That's the whole system — no spending until next payday. A negative number you notice, or don't. Offers to cover it from another envelope, and logs the transfer.
Backup & recovery Envelopes live in one drawer, in one place, full stop. Emailing yourself the latest version and hoping it's the newest one. One-click backup — and the import screen tells you what's in it first.
Trusting the total Count the physical bills — accurate, if you remember to count often. One dragged formula and the running balance is quietly wrong. Every balance calculated the same way, every time you open it.

What the app can't do, and one thing to be careful with

No auto-sync: like the rest of the TidyCents apps, this one has no server, so it doesn't sync across devices by itself. Chrome on your laptop and Safari on your phone are two separate envelope drawers unless you move a backup file between them yourself.

Import replaces everything: when you import a backup, it doesn't merge with what's already there — it replaces it completely. The app tells you exactly what's in the file first, and warns you it can't be undone, but it's still worth knowing before you import an old backup over a week of new transactions you haven't backed up yet.

Four ways to budget with TidyCents

Not better or worse than each other — different mental models for different people.

TidyEnvelopes

Spend-by-envelope, the classic cash method. For people who think in "what's left in Groceries," not dashboards.

TidyExpenses

Just the bills — due, paid, owed, overdue. The lightest lift of the tracking tools.

Read our honest look at TidyExpenses →

TidyBudget

The whole financial picture — accounts, income, debt payoff, net worth, and bills, together.

Read our honest look at TidyBudget →

Budget Plan Agent

Don't want an ongoing app at all? Answer questions in a chat once, get a finished plan.

Read our honest look at Budget Plan Agent →

Reach for this, or skip it

We'd rather you work this out here than after you've paid for it.

Reach for this if —

  • You've used cash envelopes before and missed the clarity when you stopped.
  • You think in "what's left in this envelope," not account balances.
  • You want your paycheck to split itself the same way every time.
  • A savings goal with a visible fill-bar motivates you more than a spreadsheet cell.
  • You're fine logging purchases by hand in exchange for full privacy.

Skip this if —

  • You want debt payoff, net worth, or a full financial dashboard (see TidyBudget above).
  • You only track bills, not day-to-day spending (see TidyExpenses above).
  • You want transactions imported automatically from your bank.
  • You need it to sync itself across devices without you doing anything.
  • Free is a hard requirement.

Straight answers to the obvious questions

Do I need an account?
No. Open the file and go.
Is $27 really a one-time thing?
Yes — pay once at the Applings Studio store, keep it for good. No recurring charge.
Does it work offline?
Completely. No internet connection required, ever.
What happens if an envelope runs short?
TidyEnvelopes offers to cover it from another envelope automatically, and flags it in your history so nothing happens invisibly.
Can it split my paycheck for me?
Yes — set up a Funding Plan once, and every future paycheck allocates itself the same way, previewable before you commit.
Can I move money between envelopes on purpose?
Yes, transfers between envelopes are built in, separate from the automatic shortfall cover.
Is my data safe?
It never leaves your device. It doesn't sync between browsers or devices though — see "what the app can't do" above — so back it up with one click, and actually do it.
What if it's not for me after all?
Check the refund terms on the store page before buying — we'd rather point you to the current policy than guess at it here.
In the file

What actually ships when you buy it.

  • The full TidyEnvelopes app — one file, yours forever
  • Spending envelopes + savings-goal envelopes with progress bars
  • Funding Plan: automatic income allocation every payday
  • Shortfall cover, transfers between envelopes & full transaction history
  • Works offline · any currency · light & dark
  • Full user guide included
$49 $27 · one-time purchase

One payment. No TidyCents subscription. Purchase through Applings Studio.

See TidyEnvelopes on Applings Studio →

Still deciding? Fair enough.

Nothing here needs settling by reading a web page. If you want to test the underlying idea — one hard limit per category, everything staying on your device — before spending anything, the free tool is a smaller first step.

Get TidyEnvelopes →
Sold and fulfilled by Applings Studio, our own studio brand

Or start smaller: the free Money Leak Score takes two minutes →

Full disclosure: TidyEnvelopes is our own product, sold through Applings Studio. This page explains its features, costs, and limitations to help you decide whether it fits your household. Product previews are illustrations, not evidence of a customer result.