Okay sorry but you’re really asking for this – I wish my summary looked like this on the first day of the month, let alone the last day!
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Well paid job, still live at home with fairly low overheads and currently being extremely tight to save as much as I can 
I do tend to keep a decent ‘buffer’ in my current account (don’t even know why, just my mind set) but I also transfer a lot out into savings at the end of each month.
That’s great, it’s good to see people saving as much as they can regardless of income! Inspiring
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Hey,
The ‘set to have X left over’ is a bit too naive, and most likely needs some changes.
Here’s how it works currently.
- We calculate the % of your Summary period left, based on
days remaining / period length in days. - We calculate the % of your ‘spending money’ (excluding committed spending, pots movements, etc) that is remaining (
Left to spend / Left to Spend + Spending so far)
If the ‘remaining money’ % is higher than the ‘days remaining’ %, we work out the £ amount that the difference represents.
This assumes that your rate of discretionary spending is roughly consistent, so falls down if you have large purchases early on in the month, or hold a balance larger than you intend to spend.
We’re working on some designs for Summary that removes a bunch of the assumptions, and ‘smarts’ - because even though it feels like magic when it works, it feels very broken as soon as conditions aren’t perfect.
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Wouldn’t it be far easier to just go:
“You have around £XX per day to spend”
Trying to figure out algorithms for average daily spend is never going to be accurate and if one purchase throws it out of whack that’s the whole month useless. Most people I know would have at least one purchase each month that isn’t expected so would render Summary useless in most months.
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+1 to this! It would save me from doing the maths I end up doing in my head using the left to spend figure and the number of days left.
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That’s one of the ideas we’re playing with, along with explaining ‘Left to spend’ more explicitly, by showing the raw numbers too.
Something like:
Current Balance = £600
Upcoming payments = £250
Remaining = £350 (That’s £11 per day!)
Whilst this would likely be clearer, it is more raw information to digest, and fit into the page. We’ll find a way though!
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and that’s basically what you do in real life , Ive x amount in my pocket and Ive got x days left until I get more in my pocket how much can I spend in those x days, the closer you get to payday the more you can choose to spend
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Love this idea, would be so much more useful that the current view.
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Exactly the sort of information I’d want from summary.
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I really, really, really wouldn’t want to see a daily ‘to spend’ figure without some sort of period total as well. Daily numbers are something I simply don’t have any use for.
Looking at this:
however, is pretty much what I’ve done for years (in an app, not in my head) and that would provide a much better metric for me. In reality, if I knew how it was calculated then simply giving me the last line would be sufficient although I’d prefer to see it all (for peace of mind!).
That would leave me to estimate the impact of discretionary spend, but I think the current spending estimate just doesn’t fit my spending habits anyway (which can be nill for 8 or 9 days at a time).
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I get you. Though a lot of budget tools are set up for daily spend so presumably it might be a feature you personally don’t want but more do.
To me, it simplifies budgeting and prevents you from having nothing at the end of the month. Yes, there are probably better long term things to do but on a daily basis it’s better to know “Can I really afford that pint today?” than anything.
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I love summary, we look mostly at the ring and whether it’s ahead or behind the line, predictions of the amount left at the end are never right and mostly ignored!
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Sure. I’m certainly not knocking other people’s desire for daily numbers, it seems relatively common. As someone who doesn’t spend daily, my budgeting opinions are suitably modified I guess.
In the abstract, I’m equally fascinated and horrified at the sheer number of different budgeting methods people use!
Amazing - thanks for the insight @jami (
this sort of interaction on here).
This really hits the spot! I had a rubbish go at mocking something similar up to replace Pulse in another thread (my thinking was that this info is super important and - hypothesis - what lots of users want on the home screen):
(If you want to scroll up, sit down first. I might have done violence to the Summary tab 
)
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Your mock-up sprang to mind immediately when I saw @jami’s post!
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I see budgeting in three strands:
- My bills - ensuring I have enough for each month, reducing where I can and using tools to help me in the long term to reduce costs
- Monthly spending that’s variable - groceries, travel etc - where I should have a maximum amount and try to stick to that or less (the maximum amount being incorporated into bills above)
- Everything else - which a daily spend total is useful
This is essentially how I work now - putting all 1 and 2 into a pot and 3 is my remainder. What would be useful is for summary to just do this for me.
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OK, for what it’s worth, other than the ‘daily’ thing I’m similar but different at the macro level:
- Monthly committed spend (i.e. monthly bills). - I’ve never segregated funds for this so keeping them in my main balance is what I’m used to. I budget from the figure left after accounting for all of these.
- Annual committed spend (e.g. insurance, car costs) - A separate savings account manages these mostly with a lump sum deposited on payday. (Pots should look after all of this but they don’t pay me interest)
- Everything else - food is in there simply because my wife manages the purchasing and imposition of a budget doesn’t work (by which I mean, she works to an average weekly figure by unspoken agreement rather than by having a debate every week)
So 2 goes into a spate ‘pot’ (or many) but the rest is main account based.
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Hiya
I’m sure it’s not just me but the Summary tab isn’t really helpful. It’s nice, but, well, it’s out of date.
The reason for this is that I get paid weekly, and so I deal with the majority of my bills weekly.
The Summary page ends up telling me I’m going to run out or I’m not. At the moment I’m apparently going to have some money left over, because we’re approaching the end of the month. But weekly wise, I’m down to half of my available weekly funds. Mostly because I’ve not gone shopping this week. But even so.
I’m sure there are people out there that are also paid fortnightly - I used to be on benefits and they were dealt with every 2 weeks.
So, yeah. Changing the applicable time frame would be nice.
Doesn’t work for monthly salary payments either!
They’re working on it though, they’ve already patched it once this month, so hopefully the rest for the features won’t be too far behind!
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