How do you use your Planned Spending?

Coach Blake

We are always interested in hearing your ideas! Today, let's talk about what type of Planned Spending items are you tracking?

I track my Property Taxes, Groceries for the month, and other large expenses such as Home Repairs and, of course, Christmas! These are all things I need to stay within a budget or plan towards this large expense.

We'd love to hear what you track for your Planned Spending? 

Coach Nicole

I love Planned Spending. I have several different types of purchases I expect throughout the month, but they're not necessarily bills, so it's nice to anticipate those within my budget without creating recurring reminders.

Currently, I track Groceries, Gas & Fuel, and Restaurants expenses as monthly Planned Spending expenses, but I also have a couple one time expenses I'm tracking for this month only, like back-to-school supplies! #kidfreeduringtheday

Normally, I like to set my own allotment for each planned expense for the month, but I love that Simplifi suggests an amount based on your spending habits over the last few months. Not only is it insightful, but it can also help you set a goal for yourself. So, as a personal goal, I set a monthly allotment for a few dollars less than the amount Simplifi suggests to see if I can stay under for the month. I'm proud to say that last month I finally hit my personal goal and underspent by $10.00!!! As for this month, we'll see how it goes 😆

Right now, I'm using Savings Goals to help me save for Christmas, but I can't wait to use the Planned Spending to track the actual purchases. This year, I think I might actually stay within my budget....Maybe...

Havensd74

I use planned spending a little differently than others I think.  I use it to track my true monthly cash flow.  Most of my monthly expenses such as food, gas even some bills I pay using my credit card.  Since these expenses do not go directly against my monthly (cash) income, it can be difficult to project a true monthly cash flow and how much cash I will have left each month.  

What I like about the spending plan is that it allows me to ignore those monthly expenses I use my credit card for.  Instead I can use it to track the bills to be paid from my monthly income (including the credit card bill and any planned expense for the month).  This gives me a true picture of my actual cash left at the end of the month that I can use for savings, investments or pay more on the credit card balance (should there be one).  

Even better, those ignored transactions can still show up in monthly reports so I can still track what I purchased for the month, categorize and watch it.  I use the watch lists to let me know when I'm approaching my defined limits (dining out seems to be my arch enemy) and budget accordingly.

Simplifi is the only tool I know for folks who use their credit cards for monthly purchases that can truly separate out a monthly (cash flow based) spending plan and still watch their expenses.   

It is a little tedious to use it this way in that I have to manually hide each individual credit card transaction from the spending plan (I still want to see it in the reports so I cannot just ignore the entire account from reports).  Hopefully the ability to hide from the spending plan will be added at the account level soon but for now it is worth the extra effort.

chimoe

I'm pretty much using the Planned spending as you would with a budget for all typical categories. 

Typical categories are grocers, restaurants, shopping, clothing, car gas, fast food, entertainment. I even created some custom categories, coffee shops that I try to budget for monthly using the spending plan. 

mverbree

I usually use the "Planned Spending" in addition to the "Bills" and "Income" to get to what is left, the "Other Spending". For me tracking the "Other Spending" section allows me to not have to focus on 80-90 percent of the financial transactions and only on the items that deviate from my plan. So "Planned Spending" like stated above are repeatable monthly items like gas and groceries, for me they are things that can be eliminated. But just like looking at what is left, I like the notifications that tell me if I deviate from my "Planned Spending" also.

mjn1979

I use planned spending, along with bills, and savings goals to plan every incoming dollar (zero-based budget). So if things are going as planned, my "Available" and "Other" amounts should be $0.00. I can quickly glance at that and if it is anything other than $0.00, then I know that a bill was over/under what I expected, or money was spent in an unplanned category, etc. and then I can correct it, adjust things, etc. - whatever the case may be. 

wbweston

For me Planned Spending is worthless. The reason for this is because it is not included in Projected Cash Flow, which is basically the only reason I use Simplifi. If fact, I believe it was irresponsible to release Planned Spending without being included in Projected Cash Flow because Projected Cash Flow is now grossly inaccurate.

As such, I convert all my Planned Spending into Bills or Subscriptions then modify them accordingly as needed. I can say because of this I have been able to curb my gross overspending of over $2,000 per month and am now saving over $1,500 extra cash per month so that is an over $3,500 swing because of Simplifi. The only page I use in Simplifi is the the Cash & Checking > Main Checking page.

If Simplifi could include Planned Spending in the Projected Cash Flow that would be a game changer. They should provide options on how to account for the amount of each Planned Spending item so that the Projected Cash Flow can be updated accordingly. For example, spread the entire amount evenly over each day of the period in question, or divide by 4 and enter every week on your day of choice, or better how much do you want to add every week and on which day then it calculates the Planned Spending amount for the time period in question, etc. just give us a bunch of different options for accounting for the Planned Spending bucket/category.

I do like the ability to have a bucket/category of spending that is tracked showing how much has been spent in that bucket/category and how much is left. But it is not necessary, just a nice to have. And as I mentioned since it is not reflected in Projected Cash Flow then for me it is worthless.