Why I stopped budgeting and started forecasting

I spent years wanting to budget. Categories, limits, tracking every purchase. It never stuck because it always felt like I was grading myself after the fact. And so time consuming!

What actually changed my finances was a simple question: what does my bank balance look like 10 days from now? Not where my money went. Where it's going.

I built a Google Sheets forecast that projected my balance 60 days out. Bills, income, variable spending, all laid out day by day. I used it for almost a year and it completely replaced budgeting for me.

NXT60 is that spreadsheet turned into an app. Just launched on iOS.

Curious if anyone else has hit this same wall with traditional budgeting. What finally worked for you?