Self-host
Free, forever
- Every feature, no limits
- Runs with Docker on a home server, NAS or cloud VM
- Your data never leaves your hardware
- Open source under the GNU AGPL v3
Free and open source
Every dollar gets a job.
BucketNest shares your take-home pay across buckets (bills, fun, splurges and savings) so you always know what’s safe to spend. Run it on your own server for free, or let us host it.
No sign-up for the demo: look around a sample household with a year of data.
How the bucket method works
Your pay is split by percentage the day it lands. Each bucket has a job, so spending from one never quietly eats into another.
- 60%
Bills
Rent or mortgage, groceries, power, insurance: the things you must pay.
- 10%
Fun
Saving for things you’ll enjoy: holidays, concerts, a new bike.
- 10%
Splurge
Guilt-free spending money. Coffee, takeaway, the odd impulse buy.
- 20%
Savings
An emergency fund first, then paying down debt, then investing.
Rename them, change the percentages, or add your own: up to eight buckets.
Everything a household budget needs
Budgets that fit how you’re paid
Plan each category weekly, fortnightly, monthly or yearly and see budget against actual for any period. Bars turn amber as you near a limit and red when you’re over.
Bills you won’t miss
Recurring pay and bills project onto a calendar. Mark one paid, skip it, reschedule it, or move it to next period, and get a nudge before anything’s due.
Bring in your bank
Import CSV statements from any bank, with duplicates caught and rules that categorise for you. Up Bank customers can sync straight from Up’s own API.
Sinking funds and goals
Save ahead for rego, Christmas or a holiday, with the amount to put aside each pay worked out for you. Track an emergency fund and other goals to a projected date.
A plan to be debt-free
Cards, car loans, mortgages with offset accounts, and HECS. Compare snowball and avalanche, see the interest an extra $50 saves, and when each debt is gone.
Reports and a forecast
Spending by bucket and category, income against expenses, net worth over time, and a 12-month forecast of every account. Every chart has a table and a CSV download.
Share with your household
Invite your partner with a link. Everyone has their own login and sees the same budget, and you can belong to more than one household.
Private by design
No ads, no data selling, no bank passwords. Two-step sign-in, an encrypted bank token, and a full export of your data whenever you want it.
A look around
Your server or ours
Hosted
Coming soon
- The same app, run for you
- We handle updates, backups and HTTPS
- Email reminders and Up Bank sync ready to go
- Leave whenever you like, with a full export
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Self-hosting is free with every feature, and the source code is public. The hosted service will be paid, to cover running it.
Does it connect to my bank?
Any bank works through CSV import, which catches duplicates and categorises with your rules. You can also drop statement files into a folder on your server for them to import themselves. Up Bank customers can sync automatically using Up’s own API. BucketNest never asks for your banking password.
Is it made for Australia?
It started there: Australian dollars, the July financial year, HECS-HELP and offset accounts all work out of the box. Currency, locale and time zone are settings.
How is my data kept safe?
Passwords are hashed with Argon2id, sessions can be revoked, two-step sign-in is built in, and the database is never exposed to the internet. Self-hosted, your data stays on your own hardware. The security review is published with the code.
Is this the Barefoot Investor app?
No. BucketNest is an independent open-source project. It uses the bucket method popularised by The Barefoot Investor, but it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by it.
Something’s broken or missing
Report a bug or suggest a feature. No GitHub account needed.
See it with real-looking numbers
The demo gives you a year of a sample household’s pay, bills and spending to poke at.