Frequently Asked Questions

I, Destiny Marks, have a background in social work and built Meet the Mark Budgeting around the connection between financial stress and overall well-being, not just the numbers. Every roadmap is built from a consistent process and reviewed by me personally before it's sent.

A personalized cash flow plan built around your actual income, bills, and goals, not a generic template. You get about six months of period-by-period detail, plus a table covering your full plan at a glance. It shows you where your money is going and what's realistic to change.

Solo is for individuals, and it's also the right fit for couples who pool all their money together, since a fully shared household budget can go in as one Solo plan. Joint is different: it's built for couples who mostly keep their finances separate but share some bills, debt, or savings goals, and it runs both partners' numbers side by side. If your finances are fully combined, use Solo. If you mostly keep things separate but share a few things, use Joint.

Base covers your full cash flow roadmap: income, bills, savings, and spending. Premium includes everything in Base, plus a debt payoff strategy tailored to your specific debts.

An optional add-on that gives extra guidance on how to direct any surplus money in your budget. On a Solo plan, or for one partner on a Joint plan, it's $10. If both partners on a Joint plan want it, there's a $15 bundle. Joint plans also have a separate Joint Savings Smart Allocation ($10), which handles the household's shared savings goal specifically, that's not the same add-on as the per-partner one.

When you add Smart Allocation, I split each period's leftover money for you, after your bills, gas, groceries, and any minimum debt payments are covered. The split is based on your highest debt interest rate. The higher that rate, the more I send toward savings and paying things down, and the less to fun money for now. If you have no debt, more goes to savings.

Fun money has a cap per pay period, so as your leftover grows, the extra keeps working toward your savings or debt instead of all going to fun. The cap is there to protect what the split is for, not because any amount is "too much." If you are paid monthly, your cap is higher. One monthly paycheck covers the same stretch of time as two paychecks for someone paid every two weeks.

You can always choose a fixed fun money amount instead if you would rather set it yourself.

No. Every plan is a one-time purchase. There's no recurring charge.

Not as an ongoing service right now. Your plan includes a set number of follow-up questions (see below) so you can get clarity on your specific roadmap after delivery. Ongoing coaching may be added as an option down the road.

Through a secure Stripe checkout link. You'll pay first, then go straight to the intake form. Your payment gets linked to your submission automatically. Use the same email you paid with, just in case anything ever needs matching by hand. No roadmap is completed until payment is confirmed.

If you weren't able to complete the form immediately after payment, or just accidentally closed your browser, click the link below to the form for the version you purchased.

That's a regeneration. See the Regenerations section below.

See the Regenerations section below.

Yes. Each month, one discounted Solo Premium spot and one discounted Joint Premium spot are available through the scholarship program. Apply by emailing a few sentences about your situation, reviewed personally and awarded first-come within the month.

You pay through the Stripe checkout link.

You're taken to the intake form, where you fill in your income, bills, debts (if Premium), and goals.

Your roadmap is built from your real numbers.

Your finished Budget Roadmap PDF is sent to the email address you provided on the form.

The solo intake form takes 10-20 minutes depending on your number of bills or debt, and the joint takes 20-30 minutes. Turnaround to get your Roadmap is currently 1-3 business days, though it may vary a bit depending on workload volume, as I am only one person.

Recent pay information, a list of your regular bills (including due dates for anything quarterly or annual), and if you're getting Premium, your debt balances and interest rates. Joint clients need this same information for both partners. See the Solo or Joint What to Have Ready Checklist for more information.

Your answers save automatically as you go, right on this device. If you refresh, hit back, or close the tab by accident, just reopen this link on the same device and browser. Your answers will still be there. Switch devices, switch browsers, or use a private window, and you'll need to start over.

Work begins the moment you submit your intake form, so once that happens, refunds aren't offered. Instead, if something in your plan is genuinely wrong, like a number that doesn't match what you gave me, I'd love the opportunity to fix it. A refund gets you your money back but leaves you without a plan. A correction gets you a plan that actually works.

One exception. Sometimes the numbers show that a budget plan isn't the right tool yet, and what would actually help is a conversation with a professional. If that's your situation, I'll tell you directly and refund you in full. You won't be charged for a plan I couldn't build.

See the full Terms & Refund Policy for details.

Yes. Solo Base includes 2, and Solo Premium includes 4. Joint Base includes 4, and Joint Premium includes 6. Questions are free if asked within 30 days of delivery. Just reply to your delivery email.

Extra follow-up questions are available for $10 per set of 2.

That's normal, and it doesn't mean your plan's broken. A one-off dip like an unexpected bill or a smaller savings balance for a period or two is just life happening. It's not going to throw off the big picture. Pick back up where you left off and keep following the plan.

One thing worth knowing: if you do pull from savings or add to a debt this plan is tracking, it's safe to assume your savings goal date or that debt's payoff date will push out some, roughly in line with how much you used. That's expected, not a sign anything's wrong with the plan.

If it's bigger than a one-off though, like your income changed for good, a bill went up permanently, you paid off a debt, or you want an updated timeline that actually reflects a big pull like this, that's when a regeneration makes sense.

This plan works best when you stick close to the numbers in it. It's what makes it a plan instead of just a snapshot. If you drift further than a one-off blip, you've got two options: run the new numbers yourself and adjust as you go, or get a regeneration and let the updated plan do that math for you.

A regeneration is a brand new plan, built from your numbers as they look today.

You fill out the intake form again from the start. Nothing carries over from your last plan. I build it the same way I built the first one, using your current income, bills, and debts.

A little less, not a lot. Most of the work happens again either way. The lower price is a returning client price, not a shortcut version of the plan.

Your plan is built from the numbers you gave me on the day you submitted. It's accurate for that day. Over time, real life drifts away from it.

Common reasons people come back:

• Your income changed
• You added a bill, or one went away
• You paid off a debt
• You moved, or your rent changed
• Your goals changed

If the numbers in your plan no longer match your life, a regeneration will fix that. If your plan is still right and you just have a question, that's free. See below.

You pay the price of the plan you order. If you had a Base plan and want Premium this time, you pay the Premium regeneration price.

Moving between Solo and Joint works differently. That's a new plan at full price, because it's a different product built from information I've never had.

If you gave me one wrong number, tell me within 30 days and I'll fix it and resend your plan. Free, once per plan.

One number means one number. A single amount, corrected. Rent entered as $1,350 when it's really $1,250.

If more than one thing changed, that's a regeneration. That includes a bill where the amount and the due date are both different, a bill you left out, or income that works differently now. Those ripple through the whole plan, so the plan gets built again.

It's an Excel file that goes alongside your roadmap. Your roadmap shows the plan. The tracker is where you check in on it.

Each payday, you type in your real checking balance and what you were actually paid. It recalculates what to do with that money right there, using the same numbers your plan was built on.

You each get your own set of tabs, and there are shared tabs for the things you split.

Keep one copy of the file between you, and both work in that one. If you each keep your own copy, the two files will say different things, and neither one has the whole picture.

There is one check for the household, so the message at the top reads the same on both of your tabs.

$20 for a Solo plan, $30 for a Joint plan. Added at checkout alongside your plan.

Any bill amount, any due day, your cushion target, your interest rates, and your minimum payments. Change these whenever your real numbers change and the tracker keeps up.

A brand new bill or a brand new debt is different. The tracker is built around exactly the bills and debts you listed. It can't add a new one. If your situation adds one, that's the same signal as anywhere else in your plan: it's time for an updated roadmap.

One exception, and only for couples who chose Combine Forces. There, your bills are fixed from your roadmap, so the bill amounts and due days are read-only. Your gas, groceries, and everything on your own paydays still update live. That is because your shared debt payoff depends on both of your bills together, and a spreadsheet cannot recalculate that from one person's payday.

No. Your roadmap PDF is password protected using your zip code. The tracker isn't, because a password would stop it from working in the free browser and phone versions of Excel. It's still stored the same secure way everything else is on my end, it just doesn't have that extra layer a client-facing file usually has.

It's built for Excel, and works fully there, on your computer, in your browser with a free Microsoft account, or on the free phone app.

Google Sheets and Apple Numbers will open it too, and the math works. What doesn't carry over is the protection. Both let you type straight over a cell that's supposed to calculate itself, and neither one warns you.

If you use either, stick to the yellow cells. If a number ever looks wrong, the message at the top of the main tab will usually catch it.

There's a message at the top of the main tab that checks your numbers a second way and tells you if something stopped adding up. Green means everything matches. It catches most problems, not every possible one, so if a number ever looks wrong to you, trust that and reach out.

Yes. Each plan comes with one free replacement tracker, any time within a year of your delivery date. It covers:

• A file you lost, or can't get to anymore.
• A file that stopped working, including a calculation that got typed over.

Two things that aren't replacements:

• A tracker built from new numbers is a repurchase, the same as a regeneration.
• If something was wrong with it when I built it, that's a correction. Corrections are free and don't use up your replacement.

Not automatically. A regeneration is a brand new plan built from your numbers today, and your old tracker was built around your old ones. It's a whole new file, so it's purchased again the same way it was the first time.

Yes. Your information is used only to build your personalized roadmap. Your raw submission is kept for 30 days, in case anything needs correcting, and then deleted. Your finished roadmap (password protected) is kept as your ongoing client record for up to 1 year from your last plan or regeneration, then deleted. I don't hold onto anything indefinitely.

Your Budget Roadmap PDF is password protected as an added layer of privacy, since it contains real income, bill, and (for Premium) debt detail. Your delivery email tells you exactly what to enter.