Budgeting without linking your bank: five ways compared
You can run a household budget with no connection to your bank. There are five ways to do it: download a file from the bank each month, forward the bank's purchase alerts, type each purchase, use envelopes, or work from receipts. They differ in three things: how much effort they ask, how much of the month they catch without you, and how much detail they keep. A file from the bank catches nearly everything, as totals. Typing and envelopes catch what you remember to enter. Receipts catch less of the month and keep the most detail about what they catch.
The short version
- Declining to link a bank costs you one thing: transactions stop arriving by themselves.
- A monthly file from the bank gets most of that back for a few minutes a month.
- Typing and envelopes cost a few seconds at every purchase, and miss what you forget.
- Receipts show every item and price, and miss everything that has no receipt, such as rent.
- With two people, choose the way that both of you will keep up.
Why people decline to link, and what linking gives
Linking means giving a budgeting service standing permission to read your accounts. People say no for a few reasons. Some do not want to hand a login, or lasting access, to another company. Some want to stay aware of their spending by entering it themselves. And some tools connect only to certain banks, which may not include yours.
In fairness, linking gives a lot in return. Every transaction that passes through the account arrives without anyone doing anything, including the ones with no receipt: rent, a utility bill, money sent to a friend. Nothing depends on memory.
What a linked feed carries is totals: a store, a day and an amount. What a receipt knows that your bank statement does not shows what a total leaves out.
The five ways
1. Import a file from the bank
Many banks and card issuers let you download a month of transactions as a file from their website. You open it in a spreadsheet, or load it into a budgeting tool that accepts files, and sort each row into a category. YNAB is one such tool: as of 2026-10-13, its pricing page lists file-based import as an alternative to its direct bank import.
This way catches everything that went through the account. It misses what cash was spent on, because a withdrawal shows only as a withdrawal, and it holds no detail inside any total. The effort is a few minutes a month for each account, plus the sorting.
2. Forward the bank's alerts
Many banks will send an email or a text for each card purchase, with the store and the amount. A mail rule can gather those emails in one folder, and once a week you copy the amounts into your budget. At least one budgeting tool takes in those alerts and does the copying for you: as of 2026-10-13, Skwad says on its own site that it brings in transactions from a bank's email alerts.
This way catches whatever your bank sends an alert for, close to the moment it happens. It misses anything the bank sends no alert for, which can include bills paid straight from the account, and it misses cash. Like a file, it holds totals only.
3. Type each purchase
Use a notebook, a spreadsheet, or an app with a plain entry form. Every time you pay, you write the store, the amount and a category. It takes a few seconds, and it works for cash as well as cards.
This way catches exactly what you type. Its weak point is the busy day: a purchase that is not written down that evening is easy to lose. For some people the typing is the point, because entering each purchase keeps them aware of it.
4. Use envelopes
Envelopes add a plan to the typing. At the start of the month you divide your income among categories: so much for groceries, so much for fuel, so much for eating out. Each purchase comes out of its envelope. When an envelope is empty, that category is finished for the month, or you move money in from another one.
The envelopes can be real ones holding cash, a page per category in a notebook, or an app. Goodbudget is one app built on the method: as of 2026-10-13, its own site describes envelope budgets that sync and can be shared, and its plans page lists automatic bank sync on the paid plan only.
This way catches and misses the same things as typing. What it adds is a running answer to one question: how much is left for this.
5. Work from receipts
Keep every receipt and record from it, either by typing its lines into a spreadsheet or with an app that reads a photo of it. A receipt is the only one of these five records that holds the items: what was bought and at what price, and the size where the store prints it.
This way catches every purchase that hands you a receipt, cash included. It misses everything that does not: rent, bills paid automatically, a transfer, a tip left in cash. Those have to be typed, so a receipts budget is always receipts plus some typing.
The five ways side by side
| Way | Your effort | What it catches | What it misses | Detail kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File from the bank | A few minutes a month per account, plus sorting rows into categories | Everything that went through the account | What cash bought. Anything inside a total | Store, day, total |
| Forwarded alerts | Set up once, then a weekly tally | Whatever your bank sends an alert for | Anything it sends no alert for. Cash | Store, time, total |
| Typing each purchase | A few seconds, every time you pay | Whatever you type, cash included | Whatever you forget | As much as you type. Usually store, amount, category |
| Envelopes | A plan at the start of the month, then typing each purchase | The same as typing, plus what is left in each category | Whatever you forget | Amount and envelope |
| Receipts | A photo, or a few minutes of typing, per receipt | Every purchase that hands you a receipt, cash included | Rent, automatic bills, transfers, tips | Every item and its price, and the size where it is printed |
To see the table as money, take one invented month. A household of two spends $3,930. Of that, $1,480 is purchases in stores and online, paid by card, each with a receipt. Another $2,100 is bills paid automatically from the bank account: rent $1,650, electricity $140, car insurance $180, a phone plan $95 and two subscriptions at $35 together. Cash spent at a market stall and on tips comes to $180. Money sent to other people comes to $170. In this example the bank sends alerts for card purchases only.
Five bars of equal length compare five ways of recording one invented month of $3,930: $1,480 of card purchases with receipts, $2,100 of automatic bills, $180 of cash and $170 sent to other people. A file from the bank records all four parts as totals without typing. Forwarded alerts record the $1,480 of card purchases as totals, and the other $2,450 is typed. Typing and envelopes mean all $3,930 is typed. Receipts record the $1,480 of card purchases with every line, and the other $2,450 is typed.
The month as a table
| Part of the month | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Store and online purchases paid by card, each with a receipt | $1,480 | 37.7% |
| Bills paid automatically from the bank accountRent $1,650, electricity $140, car insurance $180, phone plan $95, two subscriptions $35 | $2,100 | 53.4% |
| Cash at a market stall and on tips, no receipt | $180 | 4.6% |
| Money sent to other people | $170 | 4.3% |
| The whole month | $3,930 | 100% |
| Way of recording | Card purchases | Automatic bills | Cash | Sent to other people | The whole month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File from the bank | A total | A total | A totalThe cash withdrawal only | A total | $3,930 as totals |
| Forwarded alerts | A total | Typed | Typed | Typed | $1,480 as totals, $2,450 typed |
| Typing each purchase | Typed | Typed | Typed | Typed | $3,930 typed |
| Envelopes | Typed | Typed | Typed | Typed | $3,930 typed, against a plan |
| Receipts | Every line | Typed | Typed | Typed | $1,480 with every line, $2,450 typed |
The bank's file records all $3,930 without typing, as totals. The cash appears only as the withdrawal. Receipts record $1,480 with every line, which is 38 percent of this month, and leave $2,450 to be typed. Most of that $2,450 is the $2,100 of bills that come round every month, which is why any receipts method needs an easy way to enter a bill that repeats.
What changes when two people share the money
Three things change.
The first is coverage. Two people usually means more accounts. A file has to be downloaded from each one, and alerts arrive on each person's own phone. Typing, envelopes and receipts depend on both people doing them, so the way you choose has to be one the less keen person will keep up.
The second is one record or two. If each person keeps a record, someone has to merge them, and a purchase noted by both is counted twice. A shared spreadsheet, a notebook on the kitchen counter, or an app that both people sign in to avoids the merge.
The third is whether you keep a tally of who paid. Some households pool everything and never ask. Others settle up at the end of the month. If you settle up, you need a tool that tracks who owes whom, and a splitting app is built for exactly that. If you pool, a single shared record is enough.
Choosing by temperament
- If you want the whole month caught with the least effort, and totals are enough: the bank's file, once a month.
- If you want to notice each purchase as it happens: typing, or envelopes if you also want a limit for each category.
- If your questions are about items and prices, such as which things cost more than they did: receipts, with the fixed bills typed in.
- If you already read your bank's alerts: forward them and tally weekly.
Nothing stops you from combining two. A monthly file for the totals and receipts for the grocery store go well together: the file catches the rent, and the receipts show the eggs.
The record itself, on paper or in a spreadsheet
Whichever way you choose, the record can be one sheet. Rule five columns: date, where, amount, category, and how you learned of it (file, alert, typed, receipt). Add one row for each purchase or bill. At the top, list your categories with the amount you planned for each this month. At the end of each week, add up each category's rows and write the sum beside its plan. That is a complete budget. In a spreadsheet, one SUMIF per category does the adding.
Where Krataa fits, and where it does not
Krataa is the fifth way: an iPhone app, in beta, that starts from receipts. It connects to no bank. A household photographs or imports its receipts, and with automatic itemizing turned on Krataa lists every line. Its Money screen adds up the month: what came in, what was paid at the register, what came back, and how that stands against the amounts you planned. For a paycheck or a bill, you add it once by hand, Krataa asks whether it repeats, and on its day it asks you to confirm with one tap. Everyone in the household shares one record, and Krataa keeps no per-person balances. The home page draws a household month added up this way.
Krataa catches nothing by itself. Anything with no receipt has to be typed in or set up as an expected bill or paycheck, and Krataa does not read bank alerts. It never suggests a planned amount: every category starts at zero. Receipts are kept on Krataa's server, and with itemizing on each one is processed by a provider that the app names on the screen that asks, before anything is sent. It runs on iPhone only, needs Sign in with Apple, is built for the United States, and is not on the App Store today. If you and your partner settle up with each other, a splitting app is the right tool, and Krataa is not one.