Know where your money goes — before it’s gone.
A simple budgeting tool for students and new grads. Set a budget, log what you’ve spent this week, and see exactly how much is left — in plain English, not a spreadsheet.
Free to sign up · No bank connection · Cancel anytime
Good evening
Hi, Alex
This month
14 days left
Emergency buffer
$640 / $1,000
You've used 70% of your grocery budget and it's only the 14th. Takeout is creeping up — want to set a soft cap?
Two minutes to set up. A minute a week to keep going.
We kept the steps deliberately small. If keeping a budget takes longer than flicking through your phone, you won’t keep it — so we didn’t build that version.
Tell us about you
At signupYour income, your biggest expenses, one goal. Two minutes, one time — that's the whole setup.
Set a budget that fits your month
Once a monthStart from categories made for student life, then move the numbers until they match your reality.
Log spending as it happens
Each purchaseAdd a transaction in a couple of taps. Set the recurring ones to log themselves.
Check in once a week
WeeklyA short reflection: how did the week feel, did you stay in budget, what's the one thing for next week.
Three things it does well — and not ten more.
A budget that fits your real life
Set a monthly budget in under two minutes using the categories you actually spend on — rent, groceries, transit, takeout. You see what's left before it's gone, not after.
Know what you spend — without the guilt
Every transaction lands against your budget the moment you log it. At a glance: $84 of your $120 grocery budget gone this month, and takeout climbing.
Ask before you buy
Type "can I afford this?" before you hit checkout. You get a straight answer based on your budget and savings — no lectures, no 40-page PDF, no jargon.
The point isn’t a perfect budget. It’s a small weekly habit you keep.
Why this instead of another budgeting app?
Most budgeting apps were built for someone with a mortgage. This one was built for someone at the ATM checking their balance before buying groceries. Here’s an honest side-by-side with the options you’d actually weigh.
| Student Money Mentors | YNAB | Rocket Money | Goodbudget | Spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (paid plan) | $4.99 / month | $14.99 / month or $109 / yr | ~$7–14 / month (you choose) | $10 / month or $80 / yr (Plus) | Free (DIY) |
| Free, no time limit | Yes — signup, onboarding & summary | No (34-day trial; free for verified college students) | Yes (basic plan) | Yes (limited: 10 envelopes) | Yes |
| Bank connection | No — manual only | Optional (Plaid import) | Yes (bank sync) | No — manual only | No — manual only |
| Built for | Students & new grads | Adults actively budgeting | Managing subscriptions & bills | Households (envelope system) | Anyone (build your own) |
| AI money guidance | Yes — plain-English Money Mentor | No | Limited insights & smart alerts | No | No |
| Lessons & weekly check-ins | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| No bank data shared (private) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Pricing reflects competitors’ public plans as of August 2026 and may change; check their sites for current rates.
Student Money Mentors
- Price (paid plan)
- $4.99 / month
- Free, no time limit
- Yes — signup, onboarding & summary
- Bank connection
- No — manual only
- Built for
- Students & new grads
- AI money guidance
- Yes — plain-English Money Mentor
- Lessons & weekly check-ins
- Yes
- No bank data shared (private)
- Yes
YNAB
- Price (paid plan)
- $14.99 / month or $109 / yr
- Free, no time limit
- No (34-day trial; free for verified college students)
- Bank connection
- Optional (Plaid import)
- Built for
- Adults actively budgeting
- AI money guidance
- No
- Lessons & weekly check-ins
- No
- No bank data shared (private)
- No
Rocket Money
- Price (paid plan)
- ~$7–14 / month (you choose)
- Free, no time limit
- Yes (basic plan)
- Bank connection
- Yes (bank sync)
- Built for
- Managing subscriptions & bills
- AI money guidance
- Limited insights & smart alerts
- Lessons & weekly check-ins
- No
- No bank data shared (private)
- No
Goodbudget
- Price (paid plan)
- $10 / month or $80 / yr (Plus)
- Free, no time limit
- Yes (limited: 10 envelopes)
- Bank connection
- No — manual only
- Built for
- Households (envelope system)
- AI money guidance
- No
- Lessons & weekly check-ins
- No
- No bank data shared (private)
- Yes
Spreadsheet
- Price (paid plan)
- Free (DIY)
- Free, no time limit
- Yes
- Bank connection
- No — manual only
- Built for
- Anyone (build your own)
- AI money guidance
- No
- Lessons & weekly check-ins
- No
- No bank data shared (private)
- Yes
Pricing reflects competitors’ public plans as of August 2026 and may change; check their sites for current rates.
Why choose Student Money Mentors?
Built for one income, not a household
Categories, weekly check-ins, and copy match student life. YNAB and Goodbudget are excellent — they were just designed for households and active budgeters.
About a third of the usual monthly price
$4.99/month with no commitment, versus $14.99/month for YNAB or Monarch (or their annual equivalents). Cancel anytime from Settings.
No bank connection, on purpose
Nothing auto-syncs and no bank data is shared. We never hold your bank credentials or transaction history — you log what you want to track.
A mentor that explains, not just charts
Ask "can I afford this?" and get a plain-English answer based on your own budget and savings — not a wall of graphs to interpret.
Habits that stick
Short lessons with XP and badges plus a five-minute weekly check-in, instead of a tool you open once after download and forget about.
Free to start. One simple plan if you want more.
Create an account and finish onboarding for free — you'll see your personalized financial summary. The full toolkit is one membership at $4.99 a month, with no long-term commitment. Cancel anytime from Settings.
Free
Sign up and get oriented.
- Create an account
- Finish onboarding
- See your personalized financial summary
Premium
The full toolkit.
- Budget planner with student-ready categories
- Savings goals with progress tracking
- Unlimited Money Mentor AI chats
- Learning center lessons, XP & badges
- Weekly check-ins and spending insights
- Money journal and monthly money story
Upgrade inside the app after onboarding · Cancel anytime
How we treat your data, in plain terms.
No bank connections
Nothing links to your bank or cards. You type what you want to track — the app never pulls your transactions on its own.
Isolated to you
Your numbers live behind your account. No other user can see them, and there's no public feed or leaderboard of your spending.
Not sold, not advertised
We don't sell your data and we don't show you ads. There's no ad business here — our only revenue is the membership fee.
Erasable on request
Want it gone? Delete your account and your data is wiped within 30 days through the in-app erasure flow.
