Zero-Based Budgeting
Give every dollar a job — three offline envelope budgeting apps built around the same proven method
Zero-based budgeting is a well-established personal-finance method: every dollar of income is assigned to a category — an 'envelope' — until nothing is left unassigned, so 'Ready to Assign' hits zero. It's the same core idea behind the classic cash-envelope system, just digital, and it's the method popularized by budgeting tools like YNAB and Goodbudget over the last decade.
Dimework and Enverra both implement the method directly, with one deliberate difference from most budgeting apps: no bank login, no cloud account, no subscription. Your budget lives in a single local file you own, and unspent envelope balances roll over month to month so the plan reflects how you actually live rather than resetting every 30 days. Spendjar takes a lighter-weight angle on the same underlying idea — a monthly budget per spending category with a running progress bar — for people who want the 'give every dollar a job' clarity without full envelope-rollover bookkeeping.
The app
Dimework
Dimework is zero-based envelope budgeting for your Mac — and nothing else. Give every dollar a job, watch each envelope roll over month to m…
Enverra
Enverra is a zero-based envelope budgeter for people who want to give every dollar a job — without a subscription and without sending their …
Spendjar
Spendjar is a fast, private expense tracker built around one simple idea: your money is easier to understand when every expense has a catego…
How it compares to other tools
Frequently asked questions
What is zero-based budgeting?
A budgeting method where every dollar of income is deliberately assigned to a spending category or savings goal before you spend it, so that income minus all assignments equals zero — nothing is left sitting unassigned. It's different from just tracking what you spent after the fact; the assignment happens up front.
Is zero-based budgeting the same as envelope budgeting?
They're closely related. Envelope budgeting is the classic cash-in-physical-envelopes version of the same idea — one envelope per category, spend from it until it's empty. Modern zero-based budgeting apps digitize that: each category is a virtual envelope, and the 'give every dollar a job' rule is the zero-based part.
Why do people prefer an offline, no-bank-login budgeting app?
Connecting a budgeting app to your bank means handing your full transaction history to a third-party service. Some people are comfortable with that tradeoff for the convenience of automatic transaction import; others prefer manually entering or importing a CSV/OFX/QFX statement export themselves, keeping their full financial history on a device they control.
What does 'envelope rollover' mean?
If you don't spend everything budgeted in a category this month, a rollover envelope carries the leftover balance into next month rather than resetting to zero. That way an irregular category — car maintenance, gifts, annual subscriptions — can build up a real balance over several months instead of always looking underfunded.