How to Account for Next Month's Rent without Going Negative?

Prateek

I'm trying to figure out a specific budgeting problem with the Spending Plan and I'm hoping to get some advice.

I get paid every two weeks. My rent payment for the next month is paid on the first day of that month, using money I've saved during the current month. The issue is that Simplifi's Spending Plan resets each month and doesn't account for the previous month's balance.

Here is the problem:

• My rent is set up as a Bill and is correctly placed in the Spending Plan for the month it's due.
• To save for that rent, I thought of creating a Savings Goal for the next month's rent and including the monthly contribution in my current month's Spending Plan.
• This is where it gets tricky. My current month's rent is already a Bill that is deducted from my current month's income, leaving me with a small "Available to Spend" amount after all planned spending is accounted for.
• When I add the Savings Goal for the next month's rent, my "Available to Spend" number goes negative. The app isn't factoring in that I've already set aside the money from the previous month to pay the current month's rent.

Basically, Simplifi is double-dipping. It's deducting the current month's rent from my current month's income and then expecting me to save the money for next month's rent from that same reduced amount. I can't seem to make the math work without having a negative "Available to Spend" total.

Is there a better way to handle this, or is this a known limitation of Simplifi's Spending Plan? I want to make sure I'm not missing a feature that allows me to correctly account for a rollover balance.

Any advice or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

DryHeat

@Prateek

The Spending Plan looks at the month as a whole, comparing the full income for the month with the full amount of Bills, Goals, etc. It pays no attention at all to when (within the month) income or bills occur. It's purpose is not to track your account balances or cash flow, but to compare total money in to total money out (or, in the case of credit card charges, money obligated). It shows you whether — month by month — you are living beyond your means.

Here's an extremely simplified example of how this works.

Suppose you get paid twice this month, with each check being $1000. And also suppose your rent bill is $800, your other bills total $900, and you have no other expenses.

Simplifi will show Income of $2000, Bills of $1700, and "Left this month" of $300. It will show those same numbers whether your rent or other bills are paid before your first check, between your checks, or after your second check. It just doesn't pay any attention to when the money comes in or goes out.

Does that help?