Organise the budget with three words
You put everyday spending straight into categories: Groceries, Transport, Leisure. When there is something you care about and set money aside for, like a house, a car, a trip or an important gift, you create a group and give it a budget: it is its envelope. Inside the group, expenses always keep their category, so you know where the money went. If you have several groups you want to see together, you put them in a collection, which shows you the total with no money of its own.
The three words in one sentence
The category says what the expense is. The group says what you are setting money aside for. The collection says how you want to see the totals.
The category is fixed and the same for everyone: it cannot be created, renamed or deleted. An electricity bill is always Electricity, whether it is for Milan or for Cortina. You create the group and give it any name you like. The collection is free and holds no money.
A worked example with the November numbers
| Name | What it is | Assigned |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | category with no group, one envelope | €600.00 |
| Casa Milano | group, with Mortgage, Electricity, Internet, Building fees and Maintenance inside | €1,500.00 |
| Casa Cortina | group with no parts | €200.00 |
| Properties | collection of Casa Milano and Casa Cortina | €1,700.00 |
The €1,700.00 of Properties is the sum of the two groups: nobody assigned it to the collection, and if you delete it one day no euro moves. Inside Casa Milano the electricity bill is still Electricity, even though the money is the group's.
I want a new category
When you want a category that does not exist, the app asks three questions, in this order.
- Is it a type of expense that already exists? Almost always yes: padel is Sport, the vet is Pets. The search understands synonyms, so "padel", "gym" and "five-a-side" all lead to Sport. If that is enough, use the category and nothing else is needed.
- Do you want to keep that money separate from the rest? Then you do not want a category: you want an envelope. Create the group Padel: the expenses inside stay Sport.
- Do you want to see several envelopes together? Then you need a collection, which shows the total and has no money of its own.
Edge cases
- A group does not sit inside another one. Luca's 18th birthday cannot sit inside Luca. The answer is the collection: the collection Luca gathers the groups Luca's school, Luca's sport and Luca's 18th birthday.
- A name of your own for a small expense. There are no personal categories: if you want to see Coffee at the bar apart from Restaurants, today the answer is a group.
- One collection only. A group or a category sits in one collection only, so the totals of the collections add up to the total of the month.
- No collection. Groups and categories that are in no collection show under No collection.
Where to find it in the app
On the computer, open the Budget: categories sit under their macro category, collections show the total at the top and groups open to show their parts. The + Category button opens the three questions.