Values-Based Budget

How to set up and use the Values-Based budget method in Forbidden Finance, aligning your spending with your personal priorities.

Overview

The Values-Based budget flips the traditional approach on its head. Instead of organizing spending by category (food, housing, entertainment), you organize it by what matters to you (health, family, education, adventure). You define your personal values, assign a priority weight to each one, and then Forbidden Finance scores how well your actual spending aligns with those priorities. This method is available on Pro tier and above.

The core insight is that most people spend money on things that do not reflect their real priorities. You might say you value health above all else, but your spending tells a different story. The alignment score makes this visible and helps you redirect your money toward what genuinely matters.

Forbidden Finance does not provide financial advice. These tools are for informational purposes only.

How to Set Up a Values-Based Budget

Open the Budget Wizard

Navigate to Budget and tap Create Budget. Select Values-Based from the method list.

Enter your monthly income

Enter your total monthly take-home pay.

Define your value groups

Create groups that represent your personal values or life priorities. These are entirely up to you. Examples include Health, Education, Family, Adventure, Creativity, Community, and Security.

Set priority weights

Assign a weight to each value, reflecting how important it is to you. Weights must add up to 100. For example, if Health is your top priority, you might give it a weight of 30, while Creativity gets 10.

Assign spending categories to values

Map your spending categories to the value they serve. For example, Gym Membership and Vitamins map to Health. Course fees map to Education. Family dinners map to Family.

Set target allocations

Optionally set a target spending amount for each value. This helps you plan, though the alignment score works with or without targets.

Activate your budget

Review and tap Activate.

Understanding the Alignment Score

The alignment score (0-100%) measures how closely your actual spending proportions match your stated priority weights.

How it works: If you weight Health at 30% but only 10% of your spending goes to health-related categories, there is a significant misalignment. Conversely, if you weight Entertainment at 5% but 25% of your spending goes there, you are over-indexing on a low priority.

The budget screen shows:

Metric	What It Means
Alignment score	Overall score (0-100%) showing how well spending matches priorities
Per-value spend vs. target	Each value shows actual spend compared to the implied target
Most aligned value	The value where spending most closely matches priority weight
Least aligned value	The value with the biggest gap between priority weight and actual spend

A perfect 100% score means your spending proportions exactly match your priority weights. Scores above 80% indicate strong alignment.

Example Setup

Monthly income: $6,000.

Value	Priority Weight	Target Spend	Categories
Health	25%	$1,500	Gym, Groceries (healthy), Vitamins, Therapy
Family	25%	$1,500	Family activities, Childcare, Family dining
Education	20%	$1,200	Courses, Books, Conferences
Security	15%	$900	Savings, Insurance, Emergency fund
Adventure	10%	$600	Travel, Outdoor gear
Creativity	5%	$300	Art supplies, Music, Craft materials

After one month, your actual spending is: Health 22%, Family 28%, Education 12%, Security 18%, Adventure 8%, Creativity 12%. Your alignment score is 82%. The least aligned value is Education (weighted 20%, actual 12%), suggesting you are underspending on learning relative to how much you say you value it. Creativity, on the other hand, exceeded its weight (5% target, 12% actual), which could prompt a healthy reflection about whether to raise its priority weight.

Tips

Be honest with your priority weights. The temptation is to weight everything equally, but that defeats the purpose. Force yourself to rank what truly matters most, and let the lower-priority values get smaller weights.

Revisit your values and weights every quarter. Your priorities shift over time -- a new baby might raise your Family weight, while finishing a degree might lower Education. Let the budget evolve with you.

Some spending does not map neatly to a single value. Assign it to the value it most closely serves, or create a "General" value with a low weight for miscellaneous expenses.