I need to see SPENDING SO FAR this month

pixie813

@Coach Kristina, You recently fielded a question about the planned spending total.

Just to add some background, I am coming over from Mint.

In Mint, on my budget tab, I can see that I spent, say, $1200 out of my $2,000 budget. I would really appreciate a way to see how much I already spent as a subset of what I have anticipated. This way, I can see my progress… am I on track to stay within my budget?

Simplifi does something very strange to me. Because, you see, while I am under budget overall, I had some categories this month that exceeded my budget for that category. Suppose that I went over budget on groceries by $100. Simplifi then updates the planned spending total to: the $2000 I budgeted, PLUS the $100 extra I spent on groceries, for a grand total of $2100.

While I can kind of see the mindset behind that, it just does not work well for me, and others, in the way that we are using this tool.

Where can I see the actual total I have actually spent so far, without projections?

UrsulaA

Check out this thread that addresses your question "Where can I see the actual total I have actually spent so far, without projections?"

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/26841#Comment_26841

Bottom line: I created a watchlist with categories matching my target expenses. I can track my actual versus expected on it.

UrsulaA

Glad to help. Note that the watchlist includes bills and subscriptions scheduled to be paid this month in the totals. Something to consider when comparing watchlist numbers versus report amounts.

pixie813

Thanks for the tip!

A little inconvenient to have to build a whole new page (after having built out my spending plan), but I will try that workaround. I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel.

I would say that having a more advanced spending summary on the spending plan is still a great feature to have.

UrsulaA

Point taken. The watchlist is easy to build and updating the budget/target is easy too.

There are various feature requests for the spending plan. Vote for them as you see fit.

pixie813

So I created several watchlists, but I am a little bit confused. I don't see a grand total of my monthly spend so far. It is still broken down by category. Am I missing something? Thanks.

UrsulaA

The total spent so far is show right on the chart and on the tile.

pixie813

OMG!!! It is done! I'm thrilled that this feature has been added. That was a quick turnaround. Big thanks to the design and development team for showing that they really are listening to their users. This is beautiful.

Wedo778

Be careful though, as the "spent so far" is more than your actual spend so far. it includes any planned bills and subscriptions you have set up that are later in the month. Which is potentially fine, but it is worth pointing out so that you know what you're looking at. And potentially dangerous when it is a variable bill like natural gas which could be very much higher than your average scheduled amount in a cold month like February.

There are a couple feature requests out there around improving that.

pixie813

Thanks @Wedo778 for pointing that out. I haven't had much experience with the planned bills feature so far, and I am not well-versed in it. Personally, I would prefer not to use it at all if possible. Just an extra layer of complexity that is unnecessary for me.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29067#Comment_29067

Are you talking about the watchlists spent so far? The planned spending summary excludes bills, thankfully. The watchlists spent so far includes unpaid bills.

Wedo778

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29069#Comment_29069

Yes, sorry I didnt make that clear. The planned spending one is only actual expenses but it is also only the categories you have planned spending for. I don't know how you use Simplifi, but I can't manage a good way to have planned spending in 100% of categories. It winds up accounting for about 25% of my monthly spend due to various deficiencies and the fact that bills and subscriptions are in their own area.

The watchlist includes scheduled, future spending this month and so one has to be careful about using watchlists.

Wedo778

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29068#Comment_29068

Mainly I like it for a reminder to ensure something was paid on time. So if an automated payment fails, or I forget to make a manual payment, its there in my face and I can correct it before I get hit with a late fee.

UrsulaA

I found an idea post that calls for including bills and subscriptions in planned spending instead of bills/subscriptions. I believe former Mint users will like this as well and thought @pixie813 will want to check the request out.

The post has a negative 1 vote.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/15415#Comment_15415

UrsulaA

Also, this related request

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/13335#Comment_13335

Wedo778

I was actually thinking this one for fixing the issue I was pointing out

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/2989/watchlists-exclude-upcoming-reminders-from-spent-so-far-amount-edited

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29074#Comment_29074

I remember that request and agree with it. Also, the upcoming data was included as part of a feature request (link below) that was written back in 2020. Simplifi started out without upcoming expenses counted on the watchlist.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/942/have-watchlists-reflect-pending-recurring-bills-edited