Zero-Based Budget

Overview

Creates a zero-based budget where every dollar of income is assigned a job — spending, saving, or debt repayment — until the remaining balance is exactly zero. Analyzes your current spending patterns to create a realistic starting budget, then identifies reallocation opportunities.

Wilson Tools Used

• spending_summary — get current spending by category to inform budget allocations
• transaction_search — find income transactions to establish total monthly income

Workflow

1. Run transaction_search with query: "paycheck OR salary OR direct deposit OR income OR freelance" and months: 3 to identify all income sources.
2. Calculate average monthly income from the results. If income is variable, use the lowest of the 3 months as the planning baseline.
3. Run spending_summary for the last 3 months to get average spending per category.
4. Build the initial budget template using actual spending as the starting point: