Tracking shared expenses tells you where your money went. Budgets tell you where it's going— before the month gets away from you. BillBuddies lets you set a monthly spending limit per category (food, transport, entertainment, and so on) and warns you as you approach it. Here's how to use category budgets well.
Why per-category budgets beat one big number
A single monthly budget hides the story. If you set "$1,500 total" and land at $1,480, that looks fine — even if dining out quietly doubled while everything else shrank. Per-category limits surface the drift early: your food budget complains in week two, not on the 31st.
Setting up budgets in BillBuddies
Open the Insights page and add a budget for any expense category: pick the category, set a monthly limit, done. You can edit or remove limits anytime. Each category shows a progress bar for the current month so you can see at a glance how much room is left.
Two alert thresholds are built in:
- 80% warning— a heads-up that you're approaching the limit while there's still time to adjust.
- 100% alert— you've crossed the limit. No judgment; just information.
On Android, these arrive as push notifications the moment the expense that crosses the threshold is saved — including shared expenses where your split share pushed you over.
Your share, not the whole bill
This is the part most budgeting apps get wrong for people who split expenses: if you paid a $200 group dinner but three friends owe you $150 of it, your actual spending is $50. BillBuddies budgets count your share of shared expenses — not the total you fronted — so the numbers reflect what you really spent. Your personal expenses count in full.
How to pick your first limits
- Don't guess — look back.Check your last month's by-category spending in Insights and set limits slightly below your natural level. A budget you blow through in week one teaches you nothing.
- Budget the leaky categories only.You don't need a limit on rent — it's fixed. Set limits where spending is discretionary and variable: eating out, entertainment, shopping.
- Adjust monthly, not daily. Treat the first two months as calibration. If you cross 100% twice in a row, the limit is wrong — or the habit is. Either answer is useful.
Group budgets for trips and households
Besides personal category budgets, BillBuddies groups can have a budget of their own. Set a total for "Bali 2026" and the group screen shows collective spending against it — useful for keeping a trip on track before it becomes a story you tell. Pair it with our group trip expense guide.
Budgets work because they're passive
You're already logging expenses to split them with friends — the budget tracking rides along for free. No separate budgeting app, no duplicate data entry, no Sunday-night spreadsheet session. Set the limits once and let the alerts do the watching. For the analysis side — trends, categories, personal vs shared — see how to track monthly spending.