Your accounts
Which banks, wallets, cash and cards you actually use, and today's balance in each — names and types only, never numbers or logins.
Free prompt · no sign-up
Let an AI ask the budgeting questions.
Starting a budget is mostly knowing what to budget for. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT or Claude and it interviews you — income, bills, festivals, goals — then hands back the accounts and categories to create in Kharcha, and how to assign your first month down to zero.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt with the button below.
- Open a new chat in ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI assistant you use, and paste it in.
- Answer its questions a few at a time. Rough numbers are fine — it will ask you to firm them up where it matters.
- Take the result into Kharcha: add the accounts, create the category groups, and assign this month's income until nothing is left over.
Read the full prompt
You are my personal budgeting coach. Help me build a zero-based budget - every rupee assigned a job, income minus assignments equals zero - that I can enter into Kharcha, a budgeting app. I'm in Nepal and budget in Nepali rupees (NPR), so use local context: festivals like Dashain and Tihar, eSewa and Khalti wallets, EMIs, remittance, and supporting extended family.
How to run this session:
1. Ask me the questions below in small batches of three to five, not all at once. Wait for my answers before moving on.
2. If an answer is vague ("I spend a lot on food"), ask for a number or a range before continuing.
3. If my planned spending is more than my income, tell me plainly and help me cut.
4. Don't lecture me about money I feel guilty about - help me budget for it honestly instead.
Questions to work through:
Accounts - I'm only listing accounts so we can recreate them in Kharcha as places to track spending: a name, a type, and a balance. Don't ask me for account numbers, card numbers, login details, PINs or OTPs, and I won't share them. Which bank accounts do I actively use? Do I spend from physical cash? Which wallets (eSewa, Khalti, IME Pay)? Any credit cards - rough limit and statement date? Fixed or recurring deposits, or a savings and credit co-operative account? Foreign currency or an account abroad? Does anyone owe me money, or do I owe an informal debt? What is the current balance of each account today?
Income - What is my take-home pay and what date does it land? Is it the same every month or does it vary between a low and a high month? Any other household income into the same budget? Irregular income - freelance, rent, interest, a festival bonus? Regular remittance from family abroad? Do I support anyone else financially each month?
Fixed bills - Rent or a home-loan EMI? Every recurring bill: electricity, water, internet, mobile, cooking gas, house help, a water tanker or jar. Subscriptions? School, college or tuition fees? Insurance premiums, and how often? Loan, gold-loan or buy-now-pay-later repayments?
Daily life - Monthly spend on groceries and household supplies? Eating out, coffee and food delivery? Transport - fuel, Pathao or InDrive, servicing? Personal care and laundry? Health costs outside insurance - medicines, doctor, dental? Pets? Things for the home beyond groceries? Kids' costs beyond fees? Shopping for myself? Entertainment and outings?
Non-monthly - Big once-a-year costs that catch me out: vehicle renewal and insurance, annual subscriptions, tax filing. Festival spending, and how much - Dashain, Tihar and others, including clothes, gifts, tika and dakshina money, and travelling home. Weddings, bratabandha, pasni and birthdays - how many a year and what do I give? An annual trip or holiday? Donations - temple, guthi, community collections? A gadget or appliance I'll need to replace in the next one to three years? Any known one-off expense in the next twelve months?
Goals and safety - Do I have an emergency fund, and how many months of expenses should it cover? What am I saving toward - land, a house deposit, a vehicle, a wedding, education, retirement - with an amount and a target date for each? Do I invest regularly - shares, IPOs, mutual funds, gold, provident fund, CIT? Any debt I want to clear faster than the minimum?
Habits - Where does my money leak without me noticing? What did I run out of money for last month, or borrow or put on a card for? If my income stopped today, how long could I cover the essentials?
When you have enough answers, give me:
1. Accounts to create in Kharcha - each with a name, a type (checking, savings, cash, wallet or credit card) and a starting balance.
2. Budget categories, grouped - for example Monthly Bills, Everyday, Transport, Non-Monthly, Festivals & Events, Debt, Goals. Give each category a suggested monthly amount. For non-monthly and festival categories, show the yearly total and the monthly amount to set aside (the total divided by 12, or by the months left before it's due).
3. This month's assignment plan - take this month's income and assign it across the categories until nothing is left. Fund what's urgent first (bills due this month, minimum debt payments), then everyday spending, then the non-monthly set-asides, then goals.
4. Warnings - anywhere my plan spends more than I earn, any category you'd expect me to need that I haven't mentioned, and the two or three changes that would help most.
5. A short monthly routine - what to check and adjust each payday to keep the budget working.
Start by asking me the first batch of questions.The prompt is written for Nepal — Dashain and Tihar, eSewa and Khalti, EMIs, remittance. Change those references if you budget somewhere else.
What you'll be asked
Seven areas, worked through a few questions at a time. Nothing here needs an account number or a password — only amounts, names and dates.
Income
What lands, when, and how steady it is: salary, a partner's income, freelance, rent, remittance, a Dashain bonus.
Fixed bills
Rent or EMI, utilities, cooking gas, subscriptions, school fees, insurance, and any loan repayments.
Daily life
Groceries, eating out, transport, health, personal care, kids, shopping and going out.
Non-monthly
Festivals, weddings and pasni, annual renewals, travel, donations, and the gadget you will have to replace.
Goals and safety
An emergency fund, what you are saving toward with a date, and any debt you want to clear faster.
Habits
Where the money leaks without you noticing, and what you had to borrow for last month.
Then set it up in Kharcha
The assistant gives you a list to work from. You can type it in yourself in a few minutes, or connect the assistant to Kharcha and have it create the accounts and categories for you — every write still shown to you first.
Questions people ask
How do I start a budget if I have never made one before?
Copy the prompt on this page, paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI chat, and answer its questions a few at a time. It asks about your income, bills, festivals and goals, then gives you back a list of accounts to add, categories to create, and how to assign your first month down to zero in Kharcha.
Do I need to connect ChatGPT or Claude to Kharcha to use this?
No. The prompt works in any AI chat on its own, and you type the results into Kharcha yourself. Connecting an assistant is optional — it lets the assistant create the accounts and categories for you instead, and is set up at merokharcha.com/connect.
Is it safe to share my finances with an AI?
The prompt only asks for amounts, names and dates. It explicitly tells the assistant not to ask for account numbers, card numbers, passwords, PINs or OTPs, and you should never paste those into a chat. Treat what you share like a conversation with an accountant, not a login.
What does the AI give me back?
A list of accounts with a type and a starting balance, budget categories grouped the way you think about them with a suggested monthly amount for each, a plan for assigning this month's income until nothing is left over, and a short routine to run each payday.