How Under the Mark works
A walk through the whole thing, from an empty month to knowing exactly where you stand and what to cut.
The idea in one sentence
A budget is only useful if you can compare it to what actually happened, which is why every line in Under the Mark carries two figures rather than one.
Setting the plan
Open Expenses and you will find categories grouped into Home, Food, Subscriptions and so on, plus a General group for anything that does not fit. Under each category is a button to add a line. A line is one specific thing: Netflix, not entertainment. Type what you expect it to cost in the Planned column.
You do not have to fill in everything at once. Most people start with the four or five that matter and add the rest as the month goes on.
Recording what happened
There are three ways in, and they work together.
- Type it. Put the real figure in the Actual column next to the plan.
- Import a statement. Export a CSV from your bank and drop it in. Merchant codes are tidied up, transactions are grouped into one line per shop per month, and most are sorted into the right category automatically. You confirm before anything is saved.
- Let the extension catch it. On shops you have added, order confirmation pages are spotted and you are asked whether to save the total.
Reading the difference
The difference column does the work. On expenses, spending less than planned is good and shows green; more is red. On income and savings it is the other way round, because falling short of what you planned to save is the problem, not the reverse.
The dashboard puts it together: a dashed bar showing your plan, a solid bar underneath showing reality, and a table ending in the only number that really matters — what is left over.
Finding cheaper options
The Cheaper Options page lists 62 common services with alternatives for each: a lower tier, annual billing instead of monthly, or a free replacement. Every one has its trade-off written out, because an alternative that quietly drops a feature you rely on is not a saving.
Prices there are shown in US dollars and are not converted, because exchange rates move and a converted figure that is three months stale is worse than no figure at all. If you budget in another currency you can enter your own rate and the comparison against your own lines will use it.
Where your data lives
In your browser, and nowhere else. There is no account to create and no server holding your figures. That does mean your data is tied to one browser on one device, so there is a backup export on the Data page. Use it before you clear your browser or change machine.