The Coach in Your Pocket

Most budgets die by March. Not because you're undisciplined — because a spreadsheet makes you meet it on its terms: the right number, in the right cell, every time. Logging a shop is fiddly, so you batch it, then forget, then guess.

This is a plain-language playbook for removing that friction — by putting a **conversation** in front of your finances instead of a grid of cells. You keep a proper, structured ledger, but you talk to it like a sensible friend who's good with numbers: *"How much can I spend on food this month?"* *"Just spent £42 at the big Tesco."* *"Is a new pair of headphones daft this week?"*

The engine is three well-behaved parts — **Grist** (the ledger that remembers), **Claude** (the coach you talk to), and **MCP** (the open standard that safely bridges them) — plus a few good habits. It can even push back: log the groceries, but flag the games console as personal before it lands in the household pot.

**What's inside:**

- The three moving parts, explained for non-developers — every command is copy-paste and spelled out

- **Two ways to set it up:** a very private self-hosted version and an easy online one — with an honest comparison so you pick the right one

- The automation: draining a receipts folder, bumping one number, keeping a human in the loop for the judgement calls

- The full copy-paste rulebook, a glossary, a cheat sheet, and sources

**You get both PDF and EPUB, yours to keep.** No course, no upsell, no coaching call.

A practical guide, not financial advice — it won't tell you what to invest in; it helps you run your own numbers.

**14-day, no-questions refund.** If it's not useful, just email and I'll sort it.