How to track your month with Safe to spend

What Safe to spend tells you

Safe to spend is how much more you can spend on Discretionary this month and still hit your surplus target. Discretionary is everything that isn’t a bill or an essential: eating out, shopping, trips and treats. Bills and essentials are already set aside in your plan, so the number mainly watches the spending you choose.

It comes straight from the plan you saved in surplus setup. Your Discretionary plan sets the line and your monthly surplus is the target. As payments land, Surplus checks each part of the plan against what it expected by today and moves the number to match.

You’ll see the figure at the top of Home, for example £165 safe to spend. A red over plan figure means you’ve already spent past the line this month. Before you finish setup, the figure is marked draft plan and the Safe to spend tab reads “Safe to spend isn’t ready yet”.

Open the Safe to spend tab

1. Open Growth. The Tracking this month card shows how far your month-end forecast is from your target, −£76 in the example. See Check the month-end forecast below.
2. Choose Breakdown. The screen opens on the Safe to spend tab, titled with the month, for example October.
3. Review sits beside it and lists payments that still need a decision.

If you share money with a partner, a filter at the top right switches between Mine and Household. On your own, you’ll only see your figures.

Read your safe to spend

The card at the top answers one question: how much more can I spend this month?

• The headline reads £165 left in green while you’re under the line. At the line it reads £0 left. Past it, it turns red and reads, for example, £80 over.
• The subline turns the figure into a daily amount: £7 a day for the 24 days left.
• The bar fills as you spend. The mark labelled The line · £312 is your Discretionary plan for the month. Target · £1,881 under the end of the bar is your surplus target.
• The sentence says what the number means in plain words: “Spend up to £165 more on Discretionary (not bills or essentials) and you still hit your £1,881 target.”

Spending past the line doesn’t break anything. It comes out of your surplus instead. The card then tells you how much of the target you’d still keep if you stopped spending today.

Tap the (i) for The bar and the line. In the example, the bar is the £2,193 left after Fixed Costs and Essentials: the £312 Discretionary plan up to the line, then the £1,881 surplus target past it.

See how it adds up

How it adds up shows the sum behind the headline, one row per part of your plan:

• Discretionary plan: where the line sits, £312 in the example.
• Discretionary spent: everything that isn’t a bill or an essential, −£192 so far.
• Fixed Costs: bills paid against what your plan expected by today. “£1,681 paid of £1,697 expected by today” gives +£17.
• Essentials: groceries, transport and other must-haves, again against what was expected by today. “£237 spent of £265 expected by today” gives +£28.
• Income: what has landed against what was expected by today. In early October no salary is due yet, so it reads £0.

A plus row is running under its plan and gives you a little more room. A minus row is running ahead and takes room away. The rows add up to the total: Left to spend £165 in the example, or Over the line once you’ve passed it.

A bill paid a few days earlier than usual, or a salary that hasn’t arrived yet, can show as a minus row for a while. That’s timing, not overspending. It evens out when the month catches up.

Check the month-end forecast

The dark card under the rows shows where the month is heading. It assumes you keep to your plan for the rest of the month, including the Discretionary spend still planned for the days left.

In the example the forecast is £1,805 against a £1,881 target: “£76 below your target if you keep to your plan for the 24 days left.” Spending less than planned for the rest of the month closes the gap. A month ahead of plan reads “above your target” instead.

Switch between Mine and Household

Mine shows your share of everything, so it matches the number on Home. Household shows the whole household plan, including money that lands in your partner’s share.

In the example household, the Household view reads £442 left against a £624 line and a £1,717 household target. It also adds a row for each Shared Pool entry. Sam’s credit card reads “Estimate until the payment lands” until a matching payment arrives. The household forecast is £1,676, £41 below the household target.

What moves the number

• New payments. Discretionary spending lowers it, while bills and essentials only move it when they run ahead of or behind the plan.
• Your edits. Changing how a payment counts changes the month straight away. In the example, the £189 council tax was paid from savings set aside in a virtual bucket. It left October’s spending, the bill still counted as paid and Safe to spend rose from £165 to £260, by the £94.50 that was your share. See Edit a transaction and Use virtual buckets.
• Your plan. Edit surplus in Growth reopens the planner. Raising your Discretionary plan moves the line up and lowers the target by the same amount. Changing income, bills or essentials moves the target.

Use the Review tab to answer payments that Surplus needs your help with. Until you do, a payment out counts as ordinary spending. When nothing is waiting, it reads “Nothing to review right now.”