So I’ve been using Monzo - and, in particular, Summary much more extensively than I thought I would.
I thought it would be interesting to share my setup and what features would be helpful to make my Monzo World complete. And to see if anyone is interested in sharing theirs. I’m also hoping that real world stories might be useful for folk like @Jami in planning the future!
Enough preamble, this is my set up:
Salary comes in at the end of the month in a way that Summary can’t currently predict properly But will do soon. My financial month starts.
On the 1st of the month, most direct debits and standing orders go out. Pulse drops off a cliff edge!
As part of this, a standing order for £1000 goes out of Monzo. £1000 should also land in Monzo from a legacy account (assuming it’s a weekday!)
I transfer regular cash expenses transferred to Starling via standing order weekly, fortnightly or monthly (e.g. barber etc). I use Starling as a virtual pot (0.5pc is better than nothing, right?) and it used to be helpful to make Summary balance before you could automate money into pots. I also withdraw the cash from Starling (Monzo has asked me to minimise cash withdrawals, Starling hasn’t… Although, I actually use my Curve card, so it’s kinda academic…)
Also on the 1st, I transfer a transport budget to a pot. Every day I then transfer the cost of my commute to either my Oyster card pot or a cycling pot - depending on how much rain there is on my commute. I also add #tags!
I have repeating transactions set up for stuff that i know I’ll (probably) spend on a daily basis, but want to budget for (e.g a coffee a day, breakfast in the work canteen etc).
I try to avoid spending on my credit card, unless it’s for travel or a large purchase i want protection for. When i do use my card, I tend to transfer the amount I’ve spent into a credit card pot, which i use to pay the bill next month (and to keep Summary accurate)
At the end of the month, i do some different things with money in pots. I transfer the contents of my coin jar and my cycling pot to an external savings account, and the contents of my Oyster pot to my credit card (which i use to top up my Oyster).
also at the end of the month, I sweep any left over funds to a savings account
Doing all this keeps my books balanced and my Summary super accurate.
What would make my Monzo life better:
I’d like to be able to select a recurring transaction and select to skip it - or to move it as either a one off or the whole sequence (think how you can manage recurring calendar invites). If i skip coffee, it moves it to the next day at the moment, when I’d like to tell the app just to ignore it. I’d like to do this both before and after the due date.
I’d like some now sophisticated options for recurring payments. The one I’m really missing is every weekday - coffee etc is a work-based routine. (I might also start working from home a day a week, which would complicate this even more…)
i keep meaning to explore IFTTT for my commute. It’s a bit labour intensive at the moment to do a double pot move every day - and I use tags, too. I’d love to automate all of this.
My £1000 round trip is for the minimum funding requirements for another current account (that i actually use for savings). I’d like Summary to know that I’ll have this money coming in as well as going out. It’s a bit funky for a couple of days at the beginning of the period because of that
I’ve set up most stuff to trigger on the 1st as that’s a nice, predictable date. I’d love to be able to perform actions in Monzo based on when my salary comes in though. For example, when salary is paid, transfer money to travel pot.
Similarly, at the end of the month, I’d love to be able to move money from pots to external accounts automatically. Some logic like 2 hours before i get paid, transfer the contents of pot x to sort code/account number y.
I’d also like some automation based on my credit card payment date. As Monzo can see the incoming direct debit before it takes effect, I’d like to transfer money out of my credit card pot so it’s ready and waiting in the main account to pay the bill. (This might be a bit like committed pots, so waiting keenly to see the implementation )
I’d like the times that transactions take place to be a bit clearer in the app - or even to specify times as well as dates. That means i can safely string together a series of transactions that i know will make sense in sequence.
I’d also like the ability for standing orders to only take effect on weekdays, so i can effectively send money to, and receive money from, a legacy account on the same day.
In my ideal world, i want Monzo to be my automated money hub. I’m currently enjoying managing my finances closely, but that will wear off over time, I’m sure.
Ultimately, I’d this to all tick over in the background, and for me to only intervene when there are exceptional circumstances (like running out of money).
Can you say more about this in particular what you mean by keep summary accurate?
As far as I can tell, transfers to pots are classed as savings rather than spending and can’t be assigned a category to represent what you actually spent on the credit card.
Oh, I literally just mean just moving money to a pot. So if I spend £20 on a credit card, I’ll transfer £20 to a credit card pot. Then use that pot to pay off the credit card. Helps keep monthly expenditure on track.
Basically my salary comes in on the last working day of the month. I have a £300 SO to an external regular saver.
Similarly to you most DDs come out on the 1st but I do have some others during the month as well as other recurring transactions.
3 of my DDs are to external stocks and shares ISA funds so that is my investments.
Then 1 pot with rounding up that I use as a treat pot. Usually end up with about £20 a month in it that I just blast on chocolate or a book etc.
I love summary and rely on that to make sure I don’t overspend. The biggest lacking feature for me is that summary doesn’t recognise a second recurring income payment (child benefit) or adhoc pending incoming payments.
My salary goes into a high street bank. Some stays there to pay various household bills (for which the bank pays me cashback), some gets transferred to savings/investment accounts, and everything else goes to Monzo. All this is automated by standing order or direct debit.
I use Monzo for day-to-day spending and for any direct debits and subscriptions not eligible for cashback from my high street bank.
I don’t really pay a huge amount of attention to budgets/summary/categories within Monzo other than to keep an eye on overall monthly spend. Because my spending and saving is spread across multiple accounts I find the categorisation in my account aggregator (Emma) more useful than in my Monzo account. I do however make use of the ability to add notes to transactions. I find this very useful to prevent forgetting the nature/purpose of any irregular transactions. After real-time banking/instant-notifications, it’s probably my favourite feature in Monzo that’s not typically provided by traditional banks. It’s a shame you can’t add notes to all Monzo transactions though.
Not personally! But they’ve made it clear that it costs them money. (They’ve also said that’s it’s kinda an important part of being a bank so don’t feel bad if you need to withdraw!)
1st pot movement to car tax (save monthly to pay yearly)
1p challenge every day. I use January through to September for my holiday spending money. We pretty much went to National Trust this year so I’ve got a bit in there. Remainder usually goes on Christmas, so well see if anything is left by December 25th
MOST DDs are 1st, however with the introduction of summary I’ve stopped aligning them. I got a new car recently and just left it as the 9th
I do this because I have an overall budget set, so only concentrating on that spending as I know the budget is within my disposable income
Round up pot, currently with a goal of £50 - not sure what to do with this 🤷
Random savings goal pot of £400 from money left over after I got pet insurance payout (about 3/4 to goal) that I’ve kept for absolutely needs. I’ll probably sweep into ISA at the end of the tax year if it’s still there.
commited spend pot that either gets all DD put in it or the important ones and I move out as needed. Depending on my mood as to what goes in it 🤷
no category budgets
have moved all subscriptions to Monzo because I don’t have to worry if I have the money or not, or the time of month anymore. I seem to always have money with Monzo
credit card is only used when buying on behalf of parents
random old balance left in Santander for emergencies / it’s VISA
18th my payday
18th set budget for coming month
25th partners payday
18th-17th Money is spent, direct debits are taken
17th - whatever is left on the night before I’m paid is transferred to my account and kept in savings pots (until joint account savings pots come in)
I’m still in the middle of my setup but I nearly have it …
26th is payday which goes straight into Monzo
27th SO transfers money to a joint account where all the household bills come off
28th SO transfers a set amount to my saving bonds account
28th I set aside £200ish for food shopping for the month - never use this all
29th-9th DDs come off that are my own (eg phone bill, car payment, netflix, spotify, square enix, adobe etc)
(I’m trying to change all these to be over 1-2 days as irritates me that they are all different)
Any leftover is for whatever - I normally have a work event, birthday, Christmas to save for or something and the rest if I don’t spend I use to pay off credit cards or put more into my savings account.
I am 1 year into a 5 year intermediate renting deal so I have to show them proof of savings every year so I am quite strict with the savings account.
Wow, loads of financial envy right now I feel like Frankie First Year, I’ve been using Monzo as my ‘pocket money’ account while I tried it out and moving everything through October with a view to go full on from October salary, 28th, can’t use switching as need the old account to stay open.
Currently, I transferred my allocated £400, I spend like I’m a rock star for a fortnight and then end transferring at least two other amounts of varying ££ in the final fortnight as I’ve gone terribly over budget!
Some excellent things learn from reading everyone’s posts, thanks
I just let my salary go in and my bills go out whenever they do, that’s the beauty of monzo, It takes the management away.
Summary works it all out for me I don’t have to do anything.
If there’s anything left over that I want to put into savings I transfer that out as I near the next pay day.
In the past I’d schedule bills and SO’s to leave my account the first week of the month but now summary calculates your committed spend the date it leaves is irrelevant to me, the money is already accounted for.
I don’t really use pots besides roundups.
I’m the same with my personal account, everything just flows and works. Anything I don’t want to spend, be it savings or annual/irregular expenses I just put into pots
I’m struggling with the joint account though, money goes in and I can’t put it into any long term pots so it sits there as available to spend
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phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
21
Mines fairly simple.
25th Payday
Keep £1450 in First Direct to cover £950 DD bills out on 1st
Move £1250 to Monzo for monthly spend (£500 food budget, £300 fuel budget, £450 fun)
Move £500 to Starling for goals (savings/yearly purchases)
24th evening
Move remaining £500 to Monzo for buying shares
But will do 
soon. My financial month starts.
Although, I actually use my Curve card, so it’s kinda academic…)
)
I feel like Frankie First Year, I’ve been using Monzo as my ‘pocket money’ account while I tried it out and moving everything through October with a view to go full on from October salary, 28th, can’t use switching as need the old account to stay open.
