Budget Planner 101
Set up income, spending categories, and recurring items to stay on top of your finances.
How Income Flows In
The Budget Planner is designed to work hand-in-hand with the Salary Calculator. When you calculate your monthly salary and tap Send to Budget, your net salary is automatically set as that month's income. This means your budget is always grounded in your real take-home pay — no guessing.
If you prefer not to use the Salary Calculator, you can also enter income manually in the Budget Planner.
Manually Adding Income
Open the Budget tab, select the month, and tap the income field to enter or adjust your income amount. This is useful if you receive income from sources outside your airline salary, or if you want to budget based on an estimated amount before your salary is finalized.
Creating Spending Categories
Categories help you organize your spending into meaningful groups. Tap Add Category to create a new one. Common categories for pilots include:
- Housing (rent, mortgage, utilities)
- Transportation (car payment, fuel, parking)
- Groceries and dining
- Insurance premiums
- Training and certifications
- Travel and layover expenses
- Personal and entertainment
Each category has a name and a budgeted amount — how much you plan to spend in that category for the month.
Adding Recurring Items
Recurring items are expenses that repeat every month — subscriptions, loan payments, insurance, or any fixed obligation. Add them once and AeroLedger includes them automatically in each month's budget.
This saves you from re-entering the same items every month and gives you an accurate picture of your committed spending before you allocate the rest.
Tracking Actual Spend vs Budget
As the month progresses, enter your actual spending against each category. AeroLedger shows you how much you've spent versus how much you budgeted, helping you spot overspending before it becomes a problem.
Categories that are over budget are highlighted so you can adjust your spending for the rest of the month.
Reading the Monthly Summary
At the top of the Budget Planner, you'll see a summary showing:
- Total income — your net salary or manually entered income
- Total budgeted — the sum of all category budgets
- Total spent — actual spending recorded so far
- Remaining — income minus total spent
Tip: Review your budget at the start of each month to make sure your category allocations still make sense. Your salary may vary month to month based on hours flown, so your budget should adapt accordingly.