We are the MonoTape team. Planning a wedding, a party, or any sizable event means juggling a long list of costs β venue, catering, decor, rentals, a photographer β and you want a total you can trust. The problem is that on a plain calculator the budget is just a running sum with no labels, so the moment the caterer revises their quote you cannot tell which figure to change, and you end up adding everything up from scratch. The hard part is not the addition; it is keeping every cost named and editable.
A budget is a stack of named costs, not one number
An event budget changes constantly while you plan. The venue is locked, then catering comes in higher than expected, then you trim the flowers to make room. On a standard calculator you type 5000 + 4200 + 800 + 600 and get a total β but there is no record of which line was the venue and which was the decor. Adjusting one item means redoing the whole sum, and you lose the breakdown you actually need to make trade-offs.
A notes app holds the list of cost categories but will not total them, so you are forever switching between two apps. What event planning really wants is a place where each cost is a labeled line you can build up, with the total β and useful figures like cost per guest β always in view.
Build the budget up by category
This is exactly the kind of long, shifting budget we built MonoTape for. You add each category as a named line, and the total sits at the bottom. You can also reference the total in another line to get the cost per person.
A budget for an 80-guest event comes together like this:
Now the budget tells the whole story at a glance: you can see catering and venue dominate, the decor is small, and each guest costs about $151. That per-person figure is the kind of thing people ask for constantly, and here it just sits on the tape, recalculating whenever the total moves.
Revise a cost and the total and per-person update
The payoff comes every time a quote changes. The caterer bumps their price, or you decide to add a band. On a calculator that is a full redo; here you edit just that line and the total recalculates β and because the per-guest line references the total, it updates too. You can test "what if we invite 100 instead of 80" by changing one number and watching the per-person cost shift, which is exactly how budget decisions actually get made.
An event budget is a tool problem, not a math problem. Build it up by named category, reference the total for per-person figures, and edit only the cost that changed. Everything saves locally on your device, so the budget is still there through months of planning. To keep recurring costs in plain view, see how to see your fixed monthly costs at a glance, and when someone asks for the total weeks later, read it back off the tape instead of recalculating.
MonoTape
A calculator notepad where you label your math and one edit recalculates everything. Event budgets, work estimates, split bills β whatever you calculate stays on the tape. Free to use.
Learn more about MonoTapeFrequently asked questions
Can I see the cost per guest, not just the total?
Yes. Add a line that divides the total by the head count and reference it by name. The per-guest figure recalculates automatically whenever the total or the count changes.
What happens when one vendor revises their quote?
Edit just that category line and the total recalculates, and any line referencing the total β like per guest β updates with it. You never re-add the whole budget.
Can it keep the budget through months of planning?
Yes. The tape is saved locally on your device, so your budget stays put between sessions. Reopen it any time to adjust a figure as quotes come in.
Is it free?
Yes. Labeled calculations, references, auto-recalculation, and tape-style history β every feature mentioned here is free. It works on both iPhone and Android.