How to set and track a monthly spending budget

It is a plan for money you have not spent yet, checked against what you actually spent. You set a monthly target for each spending category. The app fills in the real figure beside it so you can see which categories are about to run out. It uses calendar months, not financial years.

1. In the sidebar, under Personal finance, press Budget.
2. Press Set a target at the top right.
3. Pick a Category. Only spending categories appear, and a category that already has a target is not offered again.
4. Type the Monthly target in RM. This is one steady figure that applies to every month, not a plan for this month only.
5. Leave Rollover off for now, or tick it to carry unspent money into next month.
6. Press Save. The category appears in the list on the right with its progress bar.

1. Press Suggest targets. The app looks at up to six months of your real spending.
2. For each category it takes the MIDDLE month, not the average, and adds about five percent of headroom.
3. A category seen in only one month is skipped, because one month is not a pattern.
4. Look down the list. Where a target already exists, the old figure is shown crossed out beside the new one.
5. Press Use these to accept them all, or Cancel to walk away. Accepting overwrites the existing targets for those categories and turns rollover off on them.

1. Each row reads Spent X of Y. X is every cash out row in that category dated inside the month shown in the stepper.
2. On the right, Available to spend is the target minus what is spent so far. It turns red when you go over.
3. The bar underneath fills as you spend, and turns to the over colour once past the target.
4. Under the bar, the count tells you how many cash rows are behind the figure. If that count looks too high, a business row has probably landed in a household category.
5. Step the month back and forth with the arrows at the top to compare months. Your targets do not change as you step, because there is only one target per category for all time.

1. Tick Rollover on a target if unspent money should be available next month. A RM600 groceries target where you spent RM500 gives you RM700 to work with next month.
2. Only an underspend carries. Going over does NOT shrink next month automatically, so if you want that, lower the target yourself.
3. Only one month carries, never a chain of them. Two quiet months in a row do not stack up into a large allowance.
4. A target created part way through a month gets no carry for that month, because there was no prior month under that target to underspend.
5. The row header changes to Available with rollover, and a small repeat icon appears beside the category name, so you can always see which targets carry.