What do I need to use Budget Builder?

Monthly take-home income; Fixed costs; Variable spending; Goals & obligations.

Is Budget Builder free to use?

Yes — run it free in the browser playground (no API key needed for the sponsored trial, or bring any provider key), or install it into Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT and more via npx pm-claude-skills. MIT-licensed and open source.

Budget Builder

Q: How do I know the Budget Builder output is good?

The skill verifies itself against its own quality checks: Every dollar is assigned (expenses + savings = income; surplus/shortfall is explicit); Categories are split into needs / wants / savings, with percentages; The plan is realistic for their actual spending — not an aspirational fantasy; Variable income is handled conservatively (budget the low month).

🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-06-30 🔷 SkillSpec L3 pm-money

Build a realistic personal monthly budget from someone's income and expenses. Use when asked to make a budget, plan monthly spending, allocate income, or get finances under control. Produces a categorized budget (a 50/30/20-style allocation tuned to their reality), a surplus/shortfall number, and concrete next moves. Educational, not regulated financial advice.

▶ Run it free — no key needed 📝 Grade your existing draft View SKILL.md ↗

What to give it

▸Monthly take-home income — (after tax), and whether it's steady or variable.

▸Fixed costs — rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, loan/debt minimums, subscriptions.

▸Variable spending — groceries, transport, eating out, fun, shopping (estimates are fine).

▸Goals & obligations — emergency fund, debt payoff, saving for something, dependents.

✅ The bar it holds itself to

Every skill in this library self-verifies — these are this skill's own quality checks, straight from its definition.

✓Every dollar is assigned (expenses + savings = income; surplus/shortfall is explicit)

✓Categories are split into needs / wants / savings, with percentages

✓The plan is realistic for their actual spending — not an aspirational fantasy

✓Variable income is handled conservatively (budget the low month)

✓The top moves are specific and quantified, not "spend less"

⚠️ What it refuses to do

Do not present a budget that doesn't balance to income — name the surplus or shortfall

Do not set unrealistic cuts that won't survive week one — anchor to their real numbers

Do not ignore irregular costs (annual insurance, holidays) — prorate them monthly

Do not give generic advice — every recommendation should reference their figures

Do not present this as personalized financial advice — it's an educational plan to adapt

Install

npx pm-claude-skills add --agent claude   # or codex · cursor · gemini · hermes
# or one-line MCP (every skill, any client):
claude mcp add pm-skills -- npx -y pm-claude-skills-mcp

Related skills

🔌 Embed this skill

Drop this on your blog, docs, or site — it renders a "Run this skill" card:

<div data-pm-skill="budget-builder"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>

💬 Discussion

Budget Builder is one of 625 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3. Try them all in the browser · ⭐ Star on GitHub · Browse the full catalog