Free yourself from the tyranny of toxic budget culture, and build an ethical, stress-free financial life.

Track every dollar you spend. Check your account balances once a week. Always pay off your credit card bill in full. Make a budget—and stick to it. These are just a few of the edicts you'll find in virtually every personal finance book. But this kind of rigid, one‑size fits‑all advice—usually written for and by wealthy white men (and a few women) with little perspective on the money struggles that ordinary people face—is unrealistic, and only creates stress and shame.

As a financial journalist and educator, Dana Miranda is on a mission to liberate readers from budget culture: the damaging set of beliefs around money that reward restriction and deprivation—much like diet culture does for food and bodies. In this long‑overdue alternative to traditional budgeting methods, Miranda offers a new approach that makes money easy for everyone, regardless of the numbers in their bank account.

Full of counterintuitive advice—like how to use debt to support your life goals, how to save for retirement without a 401K, and how to take advantage of resources that exist to support those left behind by the forces of capitalism—You Don’t Need a Budget will empower readers to get their money worries off their mind and afford the lives they want.