Guides › Monthly budget in AED · العربية
Monthly budget in AED from your bank statement
A budget based on what you actually spent in dirhams is easier to keep than one based on guesses. Your statement already has the data. The work is sorting it into categories and totalling it by month.
Step 1: Get at least three months of statements
One month can be unusual. Three or more show the pattern. If your bank gives you a CSV, use it. If you bank with ADIB, the tool reads the PDF e-statement directly: see ADIB statement PDF to Excel or CSV. PDF import works for ADIB only. We could not confirm CSV export for any other UAE retail bank, so check what your own app offers. Note that the free version reads the latest 3 months of one file.
Step 2: Categorize every line
Drop the file into the categorizer. Lines with unclear text stay in "Other" until you add a rule, so go through "Other" first and fix the merchants you see most. The app remembers your rules in your browser. Merchants written in Arabic letters mostly land in "Other" at first. We have not measured how well the built-in rules sort UAE statements.
Step 3: Keep transfers out of spending
Moving money from your current account to savings is not spending. Transfers between accounts are left out of the monthly totals unless you tick "Include transfers between accounts". If you send money to family, you may want those lines counted: see track money sent home.
Step 4: Read the monthly totals
The app shows income, spending and net by category for each month, as a chart and a table, and exports a monthly summary CSV. Amounts stay in the statement's currency; for an AED account that is dirhams. Nothing is converted. For each category, note the lowest, highest and typical month.
Step 5: Set targets from your own numbers
- List fixed costs first: rent, utilities, subscriptions, school fees, loan payments and money you send home. These barely move.
- For flexible categories (groceries, dining, transport, shopping) start with your typical month in AED, not an ideal number.
- Pick one or two categories to reduce. Cutting everything at once rarely lasts.
- Put the summary CSV into the spreadsheet you already use, and compare each new month against it.
Limits
- Automatic categories are guesses. Review them before you rely on the totals.
- One real ADIB statement was tested for PDF import: 545 of 546 rows read, 543 of 544 balance checks matched. That does not show it will read every ADIB statement.
- Free: one file at a time, latest 3 months. Pro ($19, one payment) removes that limit and adds Excel (.xlsx) export. See pricing.
- This is not financial, tax or legal advice.
Source
This is our own how-to, not a bank page, so there is no bank source to cite. See also our general guide to a monthly budget from a CSV.
Try it on your statement, free
Free: one file at a time, latest 3 months of it. CSV for most banks; PDF only for ADIB statements.