I am using carbon but trying to get the first day of the month so I can run a report from the beginning of the month till the current day.
$date = [
Try as
$start = new Carbon('first day of this month');
CARBON DOCS Refer #Testing Aids
If you already have Carbon
object and want to find first day of month for that object you can try as,
$startDate = Carbon::now(); //returns current day
$firstDay = $startDate->firstOfMonth();
You can use following function
$start = Carbon::now()->startOfMonth();
$end = Carbon::now();