Estimated reading time: 16 minutes
Looking for the best budgeting app for Canada? Check out Lunch Money, a web app that syncs transactions from credit cards and bank accounts automatically.
Lunch Money is a personal finance app created by a Canadian founder and designed for users in multiple countries, including Canada. It can connect to supported Canadian banks to track your spending, savings, and investments across multiple currencies. That way, you can stay organized and reach your financial goals more easily.
Suppose you feel ready to graduate from the printable budget binders and want software that automatically syncs your bank transactions.
In that case, you’ll probably want something a bit more robust than a spreadsheet to handle your various bank connections.
With the recent shutdown of Mint.com, I’ve been looking for new alternatives to keep track of my personal finances, especially for Canada-based financial institutions.
My current pick is a web app called Lunch Money, started by a Canadian, and is perfect for those who live in Canada and may also do a lot of cross-border transactions, such as visiting or buying from the US and Europe.
Replacing Mint.com
Mint was one of the first online budgeting and personal finance tools for Canadian users, thanks to its ability to automatically sync transactions from credit cards and bank accounts.
By combining all your account data into a single screen, the software automatically assigns categories to each transaction, allowing you to create a monthly budget, analyze your spending with reports, track your net worth, and set financial goals.
At the time, the features offered were quite an improvement, from entering transactions by hand to other solutions like Microsoft Money (where most transactions were left uncategorized), budgeting with spreadsheets, or using a physical envelope budgeting system.
Mint was a free tool that made money by selling user data to financial services companies to place targeted ads on its site, such as solicitations to sign up for credit cards or loans.
After raising over $31 million from venture capitalists, Mint was acquired by Intuit, which primarily used Mint to funnel users to Credit Karma, another acquisition, as explained in this video.
In November 2023, Intuit announced that Mint would shut down, following rumors that the product was not making enough money to justify its upkeep, despite over 4 million people relying on it for years for personal finance management.
Lunch Money’s Notable Features
Pricing
Unlike Mint, Lunch Money uses a paid subscription model.
A subscription helps fund the service without relying on advertising.
Like other personal finance apps, Lunch Money has a subscription fee.
Rather than relying on advertising and credit card offers, Lunch Money offers a 30-day free trial, a monthly plan at US$10, and flexible annual pricing from US$60 to US$150. Canadian-dollar billing is also available; check the current price at checkout.
I say “between” because you can choose how much you value the product.
For new subscribers, the annual pay-what-you-want plan starts at US$60 per year (equivalent to US$5 per month when paid annually).
Alternatively, the monthly plan costs US$10 per month. Prices can be displayed in CAD or EUR on Lunch Money’s pricing page.
The annual pricing slider lets you choose what to pay. All subscription levels include the core features; visit Lunch Money’s official pricing page for the latest details.
Canadian Bank Support And More
Lunch Money connects to your banks and financial institutions through Plaid.
Signing up for the free trial (start a 30-day free trial through our link) is the best way to see if your banks are supported.
With support from over 12,000 financial institutions worldwide, it’s not easy to list them all.
Below is a screenshot of the more popular banks, including RBC, Scotiabank, TD, BMO, CIBC, and Tangerine.
Bank connection availability can change. Check whether Wealthsimple and your other Canadian institutions are supported during the free trial before relying on automatic syncing.
Lunch Money also offers a beta-testing program for subscribers; availability and features can change.
Multi-Currency Support
One of the main reasons I picked Lunch Money as the best personal finance app for Canadians is the multi-currency support.
In the settings, you can choose your default currency and a list of supported currencies.
Lunch Money will automatically convert amounts for you to your default currency.
It also cleverly uses historical exchange rates based on the transaction date to reflect the actual exchange rate in your expenses.
The multiple-currency support lets you easily track spending in Canadian dollars even when you make international transactions while traveling.
Clean Interface
Lunch Money’s clean user interface and dashboard allow you to be mindful of your spending without too much effort.
Looking at the central column, the first and second bar charts show your monthly income vs. expenses.
You can quickly see if your expenses are starting to overtake the income line.
Below that section, the dashboard shows bar charts showing how much you are expected to spend in each category.
This projection is based on the software recognizing your previous recurring expenses (which are detected automatically).
As the month progresses, you can quickly recognize anomalies and make corrections to rein in your spending.
You can track your cash, investment, and credit card accounts in the left column.
Supported accounts may sync through Plaid, but connections and reliability vary by financial institution.
Any Canadian financial institution that’s not supported can still be tracked manually.
You can import transactions using CSV files. Check Lunch Money’s current import instructions for supported formats before uploading statements.
The period summary panel below the expenses can be helpful if you have a savings goal.
For example, if you want to save 20% of your take-home income, you can look at that section each month to ensure you are on track.
The right column includes a button to review and categorize transactions.
A button also takes you to your monthly budget and shows your recurring items so you can edit them if necessary.
The “review accounts” button takes you to any bank sync connections that might have disconnected.
Automatic Budget Categories and Rules
One of Mint’s core strengths was its automatic categorization feature.
Lunch Money supercharges this with a rules engine.
You can do things like automatically split transactions or be notified by email if a particular account has a transaction.
Net Worth Tracker
The net worth tracker that Lunch Money provides gives a view of your net worth.
It gives you a good picture of your entire financial portfolio.
You can even track car value depreciation and house worth using extensions written by other Lunch Money users.
The net worth tracker lets you watch your financial portfolio and cash assets charted monthly.
You can view how your assets are growing or switch views to see which accounts are growing the fastest.
Related: How to track your net worth.
Beneficial Community
Suppose you have a question about accomplishing a specific task, such as using Lunch Money for shared payments as a couple.
In that case, chances are someone from the Lunch Money team or a fellow user will be able to answer it in the Lunch Money Discord community.
Their email support is quite responsive, too.
You can provide input on their roadmap if you have any feature requests.
Mobile Apps
Lunch Money is primarily web-based and now offers an official companion app for iOS and Android. The app supports reviewing and categorizing transactions while on the go. Note: the phone screenshots in this review were captured in a mobile web browser, not the native Android app. See the official Lunch Money download page for current availability.
Getting started with Lunch Money on your phone: The mobile website provides a useful way to explore the account setup process before connecting a bank. In the October 2026 screenshots taken for this review, the dashboard initially shows empty income and expense summaries until transactions or accounts are added. On the Transactions screen, you can choose to add a transaction manually, import a CSV file, or link a bank account. The Accounts setup area allows you to add synced or manually managed accounts, while the Net Worth Tracker begins showing trends once account balances have been entered. You do not need to connect your personal bank account just to explore these screens. These are mobile-browser steps; the official iOS and Android companion app has a different interface. For everyday use, start with the official Lunch Money mobile app linked above. The following are independently developed third-party apps mentioned in the original review; check their current availability and permissions before using them:
- Android: Lunch Money Companion
- For the official iOS and Android apps, use the Lunch Money download page.
- iOS: Lunch Money Pal
The following screenshots show Lunch Money in a mobile browser. Below them, we compare two alternative budgeting apps.
Lunch Money on your phone: real screenshots
These are real mobile-browser screenshots taken in October 2026 before adding any financial accounts or transactions. They show how to sign in, review your dashboard, add transactions, set up accounts and explore the net worth tracker. The official mobile app may look different.
YNAB
- YNAB has an active community, but its zero-based budgeting method can take time to learn. Some people need to hire a financial coach to teach them YNAB to get started.
- It can be a good app if you like the zero-based budgeting style, where every dollar goes to a specific category. Requires a lot of attention. People recommend reconciling daily. It can be good for certain people, but it’s not for everyone.
- No multi-currency support. You will have to employ the hack of having a second budget for a different currency. It could get annoying if you travel a lot.
- Check YNAB’s current pricing before subscribing; prices and promotions change.
Monarch
- Canadian availability and currency handling should be verified directly with Monarch before subscribing, especially if you manage CAD and USD accounts.
- Monarch is another paid budgeting option. Compare its current features and bank connection reliability, and consult its subreddit to get a pulse on any major issues.
- Check Monarch’s current pricing for the latest subscription cost.
Conclusion: The Best Budgeting App For Canadians
Lunch Money is one of those apps that works with how people think.
You don’t have to fight it or deal with a steep learning curve.
There is excellent data flexibility with their ability to import or export all your data.
You can still hop to another piece of software if something better comes along.
Lunch Money says it does not sell your data and offers security features including encryption at rest and two-factor authentication.
As with any financial app, review Lunch Money’s current security documentation and use a strong, unique password and two-factor authentication where available.
Great value for a simple but powerful money-tracking system.
Sign up for the free 30-day trial to Lunch Money.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. CBB
Canadian Budget Binder may get a small referral bonus for Lunch Money if you use my affiliate link. There is no cost to the user, but you support CBB to help keep everything Free.