Budget app for couples: one shared ledger, and one each of your own
TLDR Classic is a budget app for couples. It keeps one shared ledger, called Ours, for the spending you share, and a private ledger each, called Mine, for everything else. Ours has its own budgets, and every entry in it shows who added it. It never connects to a bank, and one Pro subscription covers you both.
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How it works
- One of you starts Ours. With Pro, open Settings › Shared ledger › Ours › Invite a partner and share the code. It is 8 characters, works once and lasts 7 days.
- The other joins with the code. Open Settings › Shared ledger › Ours › Join a partner’s ledger, type the code, tap Continue, then Join. A code made on an iPhone works on Android, and the other way round.
- Set a budget for Ours. Give the shared ledger a monthly budget and limits by category. They are separate from the budgets each of you keeps in Mine.
- Write each spend where it belongs. Switch between Mine and Ours on Home. Whatever you write goes into the ledger on screen, so the weekly shop goes in Ours and your own lunch stays in Mine.
Mine and Ours, side by side
| Detail | Mine | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees it | Only you | Both of you |
| Who can add, edit and delete | You | Both of you, each from your own phone |
| What it tracks | Spending and income, and the net | Spending only |
| Budgets, categories, repeating entries and lists | Your own | Its own, shared by both of you |
| Month start day | Yours | Its own |
| Currency | Yours | One for both of you: the currency of the person who started it |
| What it needs | Any plan | Pro on the account that started it, which covers the partner too |
Budget together without merging everything
Couples rarely share every cost. Rent, bills, groceries and the meals you eat together are usually shared; clothes, hobbies and presents usually aren’t. TLDR Classic draws the same line. Ours holds what you share, and each of you keeps a private Mine for the rest, so you can see what the household spends without merging two sets of finances.
Ours is a separate ledger, not your two ledgers added together. It has its own budgets, categories, repeating entries and lists, and its own month start day, so its month can begin on the day the rent goes out or the day you both get paid. When Ours is created it copies the categories of the person who started it, as a starting point.
Ours tracks spending only, so each person’s income stays their own. Income written while Ours is on screen is kept out of its figures, and when both ledgers use the same currency it is saved to Mine instead, with a note saying so.
See who added what, and ask about it
Every entry in Ours names who added it, as You or your partner’s name, and opening one shows who added or last edited it. Activity in Ours can show both of you, just you, or just your partner. Ask works in Ours too: a question like “who spent more on eating out this month?” is answered by the app, counted from your entries, never by the AI.
TLDR Classic doesn’t split bills, keep a balance of who owes whom, or settle up, and it records who added each entry, not who paid for it. If you divide shared costs, how to budget as a couple covers the usual ways to do it, and the shared expense tracker shows what the shared record holds.
One currency for the shared ledger
Ours keeps one currency, the currency of the person who started it, and each person’s Mine keeps its own. Nothing is converted: every entry in Ours is in Ours’ currency, so its totals never mix two currencies. Your partner can join from any currency, and TLDR Classic keeps over 35.
Your bank stays out of it
TLDR Classic never connects to a bank. It doesn’t ask for a bank login, and it never reads your SMS or your email. Each of you writes a spend as a short line, like “groceries 62” or “dinner 48 yesterday”, or says it, and the app works out the amount, the category and the day. How a budget app works without a bank link.
When things change
- If Pro ends, you both move to the free plan together and nothing is deleted. Ours becomes read-only until Pro is back, and Mine keeps working as before.
- One partner at a time. Either of you can leave Ours, and the person who started it can remove the other. After a partner joins, changing to a different partner has a 90-day wait.
- If you delete your account, your own data is deleted, Ours stays with your partner, and your past entries there show as Former member.
- Deleted entries in Ours can be recovered for 30 days, and the first delete each time you open the app asks whether to delete it for both of you.
What it costs
Ours is part of Pro. Pro is US$3.99 a month or US$24.99 a year (₹399 or ₹2,999 in India), and your store shows your price before you buy. Only the person who starts Ours needs Pro, and it covers the partner fully, including their own Mine. Every new account gets Pro free for 30 days, no card needed. TLDR Classic isn’t offered in the European Union, Russia, Belarus or China mainland.
In India, the couples budget app page for India covers the same shared ledger in rupees, with UPI screenshots.
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Questions worth asking
Can my partner see my personal spending?
No. Your own ledger, Mine, is visible only to you. Your partner sees only Ours, the ledger you share, and nothing moves from Mine to Ours unless you put it there.
Can we set a budget together in one app?
Yes. Ours, the ledger you share, has its own monthly budget and category budgets, apart from the ones each of you keeps in Mine, and both of you see what is left as entries come in.
Does my partner need their own subscription?
No. Only the person who starts Ours needs Pro, and it covers the partner fully, their own private ledger included. Every new account also gets Pro free for its first 30 days.
Can a couple budget in two different currencies?
Each of you can keep your own ledger in your own currency, but Ours, the shared one, uses one currency: that of the person who started it. Nothing is converted, so the shared totals never mix two currencies.
Does a budget app for couples need access to our bank accounts?
Not TLDR Classic. It never connects to a bank and never asks for a bank login; each of you writes or says what you spent, and the app adds it up.
Start a budget for the two of you
Every new account starts with 30 days of Pro, no card needed, so you can set up Ours on the first day. On Android now. The iPhone app is in Apple’s review.
iPhone: coming soon
This describes how TLDR Classic works as of November 2026. It is not advice about your money.