What is zero-based budgeting?
Zero-based budgeting has one rule: every euro of income gets assigned a job before the month begins. A salary of 3,000.00 means 3,000.00 of jobs — rent, food, savings, everything. What is left without a job is zero. That is the zero in the name, and it is the whole method.
Give every euro a job
In a normal budget you spend first and see what is left. In a zero-based budget, the assignment happens before the spending: income is divided into named envelopes — articles — and each envelope is a decision, not a leftover.
The month closes at zero
When the month ends, every envelope is settled: what was spent, what was not. The unused amounts do not vanish — they carry into next month as part of the next plan. Income minus jobs equals zero, always. That is what closing a month means in Our Konomy.
Why it sticks
The discipline lives in the planning, not in the guilt. If an envelope runs short, you move money between envelopes while the month is still open — a deliberate decision with a record, not a silent overdraft.
- Plan before you spend, not after
- Leftovers are decisions, not dust
- Closed months never change
See it in the product
Give every euro a job before the month begins — and the math closes at zero.