Split payments
A receipt that covers groceries, a gift and something for the house goes in as one payment over several categories. Type every amount but one and the last line takes the rest.
Your zero‑based budget, on your iPhone.
Plan all of your income before the month starts, log what you spend in a few taps, and see what’s left in each category before you buy.
iPhone, iOS 26 or later
One payment: no subscription, no account, no ads.
How a month works
You enter what you earn and spend yourself: Micawber doesn’t connect to your bank. Here is a month in four steps, each with a short clip of the app.
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Plan the month
Remaining to budget, the figure at the top of the month, is the income you haven’t assigned yet. Tap a category’s planned amount, type a new one and tap ✓. Once all of the income is assigned, the figure reads $0: balanced, nothing left to budget.
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Log it as it happens
Tap +, type the amount, pick a category and save. Your most used categories come first, and the Save button reads the entry back to you, such as “Save $14.50 · Groceries”. Back on Budget, the category’s left figure drops by what you spent.
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Check what’s left
Tap a category to see its month: what’s left, what’s spent of what’s planned, its 12-month trend and average, and each entry by day. Look before you buy and you know whether the money is there. Going over shows in red; Micawber never stops you.
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Start the next month
Move on to a month that isn’t planned yet and tap Start from last month: it copies last month’s categories and planned amounts, with nothing spent. Start empty gives you a blank month if you’d rather. Unspent money doesn’t roll over; only a fund carries its balance from month to month.
What it does
Funds
Turn a saving category into a fund to keep the balance of money set aside for something bigger: a car, a holiday, next year’s fees. Each month’s saving adds to it, and a withdrawal comes out of the fund, never the month’s budget.
Insights
Where the month went, by group and category: each one’s share of spending, planned against actual and its average month, with a 12-month trend for every category.
- Light and dark appearance, and larger text sizes.
- Amounts in your iPhone’s currency.
- Undo after deleting an entry.
- Works without a network connection.
Your data
There is no account and nothing to sign in to. Your budget lives on your iPhone, and Micawber collects nothing and makes no network requests of its own.
Backups in your own iCloud Drive
Once a day, as plain JSON files you can see in Files under iCloud Drive › Micawber. With iCloud Drive off, they stay on your iPhone.
- Restore any backup, on the same iPhone or a new one.
- Export everything as JSON whenever you like, or delete it all.
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking.
What it doesn’t do
Better to know before you buy than after.
- No bank connection. You enter every transaction yourself, and nothing imports from a bank, another budgeting app or a spreadsheet.
- iPhone only. There’s no iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Android or web version, and your budget doesn’t sync between devices.
- One person’s budget. A budget lives on one iPhone, with no way to share it with a partner.
- No recurring transactions. Start from last month copies the plan, not what was spent, so a bill that comes every month is logged each time.
Price and terms
Micawber is one payment on the App Store, which shows you the price in your own currency before you buy.
- No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads. The one payment covers everything Micawber does.
- Family Sharing. Up to six family members can use Micawber with Family Sharing enabled.
- No trial. What this page shows is the whole app.
- Refunds go through Apple. If Micawber isn’t for you, ask Apple for a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com.
- Requires an iPhone with iOS 26 or later.
Questions before buying
I’ve never done zero-based budgeting. Is Micawber for me?
It can be. Before the month starts, you plan all of your income as spending or saving until nothing is left to budget, then log what you spend against that plan. Micawber starts you with a set of common categories, so your first plan is mostly a matter of filling in amounts.
Can I bring my budget from another app?
No. Micawber imports nothing from other apps. You start from its default categories, rename, add or archive them to match yours, and plan this month by hand.
What if I don’t log something for a few days?
Add it when you remember, with the date it happened: quick-add offers Today, Yesterday and a calendar for any other day. Each entry counts in the month of its date.
Can two of us keep one budget?
No. A budget lives on one iPhone and doesn’t sync with any other device, so two people can’t share it.
What happens if I lose or replace my iPhone?
With iCloud Drive on, Micawber backs up once a day to your own iCloud Drive. Install Micawber on the new iPhone, signed in to the same Apple Account, and restore the newest backup: Support has the steps. Backups kept only on your iPhone are lost with it.
What happens to my data if I stop using Micawber?
Your backups stay in your own iCloud Drive until you delete them, even after you delete the app. They’re plain JSON files, in the Files app under iCloud Drive › Micawber. Deleting Micawber removes everything it keeps on your iPhone, including On My iPhone › Micawber.
Plan next month in Micawber.
One payment for everything it does on your iPhone, and a budget that stays yours.
iPhone, iOS 26 or later
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness.”