A budget that works
for both of you.
Built by a spreadsheet-obsessed engineer and refined by a pen-and-paper partner. Ridgeline Budget is the system that finally bridges the gap - precise enough for the numbers person, clear enough for everyone else.
credit card required
our own household
sync & collaborate
The Philosophy
Needs first.
Wants from savings.
Every dollar you spend is either something you need - electricity, rent, insurance - or something you want - the morning coffee, the weekend trip.
Budget for your needs. Save for your wants. When the month closes, any surplus flows into your budget envelopes - ready to support future wants.
Read our story →-
Budget on needs, not wants Your baseline budget covers essentials. Extras draw from savings.
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Everything amortized monthly Annual car tabs, quarterly water bills - all smoothed to a monthly figure.
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Surplus funds your wants End-of-month surplus flows into envelopes. Vacation, auto, birthdays.
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Your data, your device Encryption keys never leave your device. Not even we can read your data. How our private budgeting app works →
See the app
Your finances, at a glance.
Nine focused screens. Know where you stand in under a minute.
What's included
Nine screens,
one daily habit.
Every screen has a job. Most days you only need one of them.
Dashboard
At-a-glance view of your income, projected surplus, and how close you are to the month's target. Favorite budgets are highlighted here.
Progress Page
Your daily screen. Log every purchase, attach a budget to the ones that came from an envelope, handle extra income and corrections.
Reports & History
Six chart types across every month you have closed: cash flow, monthly surplus, budget balances, budget flow, budget spending, and net worth. History lets you undo the last month close if needed.
Income
Track every income source with flexible pay frequencies - weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and more. Add deductions per source (taxes, 401k, insurance) so the app works from your real take-home. Mark reliable vs. variable income separately to build a conservative baseline.
Expenses
Enter every planned credit card and bank transfer expense. Import from a spreadsheet template in seconds.
Budget Envelopes
Three budget types for every situation - Priority, Standard, and Skip Auto-Fill. Set a maximum on priority budgets to cap their fill. Assign a monthly allowance to any budget for a guaranteed recurring top-up, independent of surplus.
Net Worth
Track your full financial picture - checking, savings, investments, mortgages, and loans - split into assets and liabilities. Set milestone targets and see projections alongside actuals on the Net Worth chart in Reports.
Settings
Tune the surplus split, export or restore a full JSON backup, and choose from three view modes: Standard, Advanced, or Simple. Pick from seven built-in color themes. Paid accounts unlock workspace management, partner access creation, end-to-end encryption with QR key sharing, passkey sign-in via Face ID or Touch ID, and custom themes.
Daily routine
Five minutes a day.
The Dashboard is designed to be your daily check-in.
Update spending sources
Type the new total for each card or account. Ridgeline Budget logs the difference as a spending entry and recalculates what you've spent automatically.
Attach a budget to your wants
Any purchase that wasn't a need gets a budget. It's deducted from that envelope and removed from the monthly calculation. Not sure which envelope? Flag it Needs Review and decide later - the account balance stays right either way.
Record planned expenses with ease
Bills you pay from a card or account you spend from appear with a Record Now button. When the charge hits, tap it - done. Anything on automatic draft stays budgeted for and never asks for attention.
Close the month
At the end of the month, visit the Progress Page to review everything, distribute surplus to budgets, and advance to the next month. The whole process takes under 10 minutes.
Free to start
Ready to see your finances from the
RidgeLine?
Start free - just create a free account. Sync across devices and collaborate with a partner with a paid plan.