New bucket type – up to N per month

[AAverin]

Not sure if it was already suggested.
After using the app for a few months, I noticed that there is an uncovered bucket case.

For example, I spend money on coffee.
I expect to spend 100$ a month, but sometimes I drink less, sometimes more. Still, I want to stay within that budget and that is maximum I want to spend a month.
At the moment I have to manually fill such buckets every month, but it could be automated, I think.

So basically I want to set a MAX amount and I want this bucket to be filled up to that amount for every month

[SirElismyer]

I'm trying to wrap my head around this suggestion. I think what you mean is that you want to be able to "top off" the bucket at the beginning of each month rather than put the full amount of rain that you've designated.

Another example, I spend ~$600 a month on groceries. I currently have it as a reoccurring expense but if I only spent $500, I don't need $600, I need $500.

I'd imagine it would be implemented as a type of bucket. "Top off to X each month"

I think it's worth mentioning though that that would make it so you had a variable Rain/mo needed to fill all your buckets. I would wonder if that would create problems in the programming let alone the mindset. I depend on knowing how much rain/mo I'm going to need and I keep my eye on that number very closely as I'm creating sinking funds.

I wonder if a better implementation would be a check box that indicates that a budget item "evaporates" at the end of the month and re-becomes available rain.

[AAverin]

Yes, groceries is another good example.
I myself don't yet pay attention to rain amount, so don't know how other would react if this will become a variable. But really, there many other buckets that you have to top up manually anyways, so what's the point in paying attention to rain? It doesn't reflect the real amount of money you would need for the month.

[SirElismyer]

I think maybe you and I have fundamentally different ways of budgeting.

My current goal is paying off debt. Every single drop that doesn't go into a bucket goes into debt hole (its too gaping to be a bucket 😭). If I go two months without using all the rain in a particular bucket, I lower the want for that particular bucket. My goal is for each bucket to be completely empty at the end of the month.

In my last example, if I only spend $500 for two months, I would lower my Grocery from $600 to $500 so that I don't have $100 tied up in a bucket that doesn't need it.

For this reason, the Rain/mo is a super important factor to me. It shows that if I spend within the guidelines that I've set, I can expect X amount of money left over at the end of the month (by calculating MyExpectedIncome- Rain/mo).

This number is also super important when making decisions in adding new services to my life. "Can I afford Netflix?" is really, "Does $11/mo cause my Rain/mo to go above my expected income?"

I personally can't have that number weasel around.

[AAverin]

You're right, I don't have a debt to pay out.
But still I wouldn't rely on "rain". I would just empty all buckets in the end of the month, moving all leftovers to the debt bucket. Sounds a bit easier to me =)

[Limezy]

Not sure if it was already suggested.
After using the app for a few months, I noticed that there is an uncovered bucket case.

For example, I spend money on coffee.
I expect to spend 100$ a month, but sometimes I drink less, sometimes more. Still, I want to stay within that budget and that is maximum I want to spend a month.
At the moment I have to manually fill such buckets every month, but it could be automated, I think.

So basically I want to set a MAX amount and I want this bucket to be filled up to that amount for every month

Hi @AAverin, this is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote the "overflow" type bucket in #182

Copy here :

The "overflow" bucket

This bucket makes sure you have exactly B money for your corresponding expenses at the begining of each month.

• If the balance is more than B at the end of previous month, it will give enough rain to come back to B for this month.
• If the balance is between 0 and B at the end of previous month, it will want as much rain as needed to set balance back to B for this month.
• If the balance is less than 0 at the end of previous month, you overspent ! It will ask as much rain as needed to set balance back to B for this month.

I also came up with two other types of buckets that could be designed.
Of course, there are infinities more !
However, if one day @iffy allows us to code and share our own buckets, I'm pretty sure we'll quickly come up with the same dozen of buckets and rarely innovate outside that 😄

[MobyCarp]

Late to the discussion, but if I understand correctly the desired functionality would be to ensure that Coffee has exactly $100 at the beginning of the month. If there is $20 left from last month, you would rain $80. If there is $0, you would rain $100.

Assuming this understanding is correct, I can achieve that with a bucket type of "Save $X by Depositing $Z per Month," setting X = Z = 100. I have several categories that work like this, and I just have to ignore the percent of goal bar after I start spending.