Case Study: How One Family Stopped Categorizing and Started Actually Budgeting
“We’ve used traditional budgeting apps for years. But our first month using Crew was the best we’ve ever stuck to a budget."
For years, Logan and Sarah’s budget lived in an app that connected to their cards and updated after transactions happened. It worked, but it was tedious. “I’d pull it up once a day to see where we were at and move transactions to the right place,” he explained. “It was helpful, but it felt detached from our actual spending.”
Sarah, who was less into budgeting than her husband, found it even harder to stay engaged. “All she wanted to know was how much money she had to spend so she could stay within budget,” Logan said. “But our old budgeting tool would show a bunch of categories that weren’t live updating. She might think she had $100, go to Target and spend $40, then make a few more stops, and accidentally spend $180.”
When Logan switched to Crew, he was a bit nervous. But the first month after using Crew, something shifted. “It just clicked right away,” he said. “For the first time, budgeting actually felt real.”
Guilt-Free Money
With Crew, that problem disappeared. Every time Logan or Sarah walks into a store, they open the app, swipe the “pocket” they want to spend from, and tap their card. “When you tap your card, it comes directly out of that pocket,” Logan said. “There’s no thought afterward about where to categorize it. And because the card won’t let you overspend, it’s impossible to go over budget.”
That single change transformed the way the two of them approached money. “You might think it would feel restrictive,” he said, “but it’s actually incredibly freeing. It’s guilt-free money. We can spend all of it and know it’s fine.”
Before Crew, budgeting meant weekly conversations and recalculations. Now, they barely have to talk about it. “You open the app and there’s how much money there is. There’s nothing to discuss.”
Simplicity That Clicks
For Logan, the simplicity is what makes Crew stand out. “It’s really easy to split up money between pockets, hide the ones you don’t want to think about, and just see what’s truly available,” he said. “Maybe my bank account has thousands, but only $40 is actually free to spend, and that’s all I want to see.”
That clarity changed the tone around money in his household. Budgeting stopped being about restriction and became about awareness. “It all just feels like nothing—zero effort to keep track,” Logan said. “I’m already using my phone for Apple Pay, so I just open Crew, swipe a pocket, and double-tap to pay. It’s seamless.”
A New Way to Think About Budgeting
Logan believes most people misunderstand what budgeting is supposed to be. “The biggest problem is that to most people, budgeting means looking back at your month to see where your money went,” he said. “That doesn’t really help. What actually helps is being conscious of how much you have to spend before you spend it. That’s what Crew does—it keeps that number front and center.”
In his family, that small mindset shift made all the difference. Budgeting isn’t something they dread anymore. It’s something that gives them peace of mind. “Crew made it easy to live within our means without overthinking it,” Logan said. “We don’t have to wrestle with our budget anymore. It just works.”
