IFTTT/Monzo/Strava/Cycling question

Are there any other cyclists here who not only use the IFTTT/Monzo applet to save but who also know how to adjust it?

Basically, I love Monzo and I love cycling. The applet saves a set amount of money per a set distance (every 100m I think).

The problem is that it saves at a higher rate than I can afford each month. I’ve tried adjusting it but it doesn’t seem to work.

Anyone here know how to change the applet settings?

I’m guessing that this is the one you’re using? You can’t configure the rate of saving sadly:

You can create an applet yourself though and you can then adjust the rate (e.g. Per 100m below):

Edit: please disregard the below steps as per my subsequent post:





(NB: The white enclosed text above is an “Ingredient” [value taken from the trigger] and can be inserted using the “Add Ingredient” button [appears when clicking into the “Amount” field] or by typing {{DistanceMeters}})

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Thanks!

That is the one I’m using.

I have tried creating my own before but they have not worked. I’ll try again following your step by step guide. Thanks again for taking the time to do this.

Have a good weekend.

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Just created it.

I removed the double brackets around the distance which I’ve never done before. Hopefully that’s done the job.

Even more hopefully, I’ll test it out with a long bike ride tomorrow morning.

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Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’ve done you need the {{DistanceMeters}}; this is the “Ingredient” which is the value taken from the Strava activity. Otherwise I’m fairly certain that the Applet will fail as it can’t perform maths on a string.

I’ll update my previous post for clarity.

Edit: also happy cake day.

Thanks Sean!

Hadn’t even realised it was my Cake Day…and it’s a Friday too.

Cycling tomorrow then off to see the Aretha Franklin doc tomorrow night. Life is good.

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Really interested to know if it works. I tried exactly the same but it ignores everything after the {{Distance Meters}} so attempts to transfer several thousand pounds into the pot.
As far as I can tell, this can’t be done without developing your own applet.

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You mean you also don’t have vast piles of cash in your Monzo? :sweat_smile: that’ll teach me for not testing…

Screenshot_20190510-203632__01

Turns out arithmetic doesn’t work in IFTTT without developing an applet in JS so the only way you’ll be able to get this done unless Monzo put out another applet is using a combination of 2 applets (and a GoogleSheets cell).

Here’s the two applets that will save 1p per 100m cycled (and I tested it this time :innocent:):

Screenshot_20190510-212612__01
(the last number in “Value” being the number of meters you want to earn a penny for [the last one would have saved in pounds had it worked])
Screenshot_20190510-214252__01

I would recommend creating a test manual activity before you go out for your first ride as it failed the first time I ran the combo because the first applet didn’t create the spreadsheet quick enough.

Also note it won’t save anything if you do the exact same number of meters as your previous ride (because there was no update on the cell). You can counter this with a third applet if you wish:

Screenshot_20190510-214913__01

But this will result in a “failure” being logged in the IFTTT activity feed due to Monzo not allowing a zero value for pot update:

Screenshot_20190510-214818__01

Not done this as a step by step but happy to do it if anyone would like it.

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Not managed to get out on the bike again yet! Will let you know when I do.

(Daughter in the middle of GCSEs so it feels a bit harsh to get home and say ‘I’m off out on the bike’)

My goal was to be able to save £0.20 / km - I want to replace my running shoes once they’ve done around 500km and it costs around £100 to buy a new pair. But I was stuck at this point:

This is what I thought too, but I had a better look into last night. It can’t be done without developing an applet; but you don’t need to wait for Monzo to do it - you can develop your own applets on IFTTT Platform. You need to be on a premium plan to publish them, so I can’t share mine, but you can do the same steps yourself.

I didn’t screenshot the steps of creating an IFTTT Platform account, but it was easy enough. Then you need to create a New Applet

Add the Strava trigger

Add a Monzo action

Note - you need to set a default value of 0 here.

Scroll back up and add filter code:

Code itself looks like this:

This takes the String distance in meters - converts it to an Integer and divides by 5000, then turns that back into a String to set the pot amount in Monzo.

My other discovery last night is that you can trigger a Strava applet by creating a manual activity, which makes testing quicker and a lot less tiring :slight_smile: I added an 8km run and…

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Excellent stuff, can you publish the Applet as well?

Unfortunately not - if it contains .js filter code you need to be on a premium plan to publish it, I’m just using the free tier.

Still haven’t quite got it right. Even on short rides it won’t save anything.

Guess I’ll just have to get a thousand pounds into my account instead.

Update… the applet I showed earlier wasn’t quite right either. I can’t find any way of getting meaningful logs from IFTTT, just “there was a problem with your action” but after a bit of trial and error, I’m sure it’s a rounding issue. You’re doing 6000 / 5000 and expect to get 1.2, but really you get something like 1.1999999999 and Monzo fails when asked to move £1.199999999 into a pot. In my test I just happened to choose numbers that rounded perfectly - but it never worked on a real run.

I’ve changed the filter code to ensure the result has two decimal places:

var finalAmount = parseFloat(Strava.newActivityByYou.DistanceMeters)/5000;
Monzo.potDeposit.setAmount(finalAmount.toFixed(2).toString());

and it’s worked reliably with a variety of test amounts and on several real world runs since.

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I built one to just save £5 after every ride. Interested to know if this distance based approach worked.

Any further updates or is the above stable enough for us to use?

Sorry I could have pointed this out earlier as I encountered the same when helping with an applet on the megathread

I know this might be a little late, but;

  1. Automatically save your Strava activities to a Google doc: I use one by jamisonross as it already existed.

  2. This will then just populate a spreadsheet(s) line by line by activity type. So, in cell I1 of the sheet, a simple =count(c:c) formula.

  3. In cell I2;
    =round((VLOOKUP(INDIRECT(“A”&I1),A:G,3,false)/1609)/3.15,2)

This will round the value of your run to 2 decimal places, and give you 0.20p per KM.

For running, this is how I have it set.
For cycling, I move £1 for every 16km so the formula in the cycling sheet is;
=round((VLOOKUP(INDIRECT(“A”&I1),A:G,3,false)/1609)/10,2)

  1. Now you need to tie cell change with Monzo update in another applet. Using the cell updated in spreadsheet trigger, have it monitor cell I2: then move money to your chosen pot with to “value” of the cell.

And then you’ve got it auto moving per km you run (or cycle or swim for that matter)…

Easy once it’s set up albeit a faff to have multiple triggers rather than just 1.

Thanks for the write up but I don’t understanding why you used this instead of the instructions given by @sooty

Yes, thanks for taking the time to set this out Jordge. I do appreciate it but @sooty has set out a solution that works for me.