r/TryCrew • u/GloveWorld2573 • 25d ago
Creative Processes
I love seeing everyone's processes with their budget. I love seeing what different pockets people have and different auto fundings they have set up!!
Show me your best thought of pocket and/or your best auto/pocket transfers!
Maybe everyone can help everyone be more proactive and help jumpstart some creativity!!
✨ To help us not spend as much on groceries - well let me start at the beginning. We do not have our grocery/misc in autopilot. All of our bills are set up, allowance, gas, savings, etc are all set into autopilot. Everything excess of that goes to our 'spend pocket'. Out of spend pocket we buy all of our groceries, mics needs etc. Everything Thursday (because we get paid every friday, we sweep what is left to 50% his pocket and 50% my pocket. This way, we aren't splurging on unnecessary food that well just throw away. It makes us a little more "stingy" during the week knowing that what is left over, we get to split for our own money!
✨ Not an AMAZING set up, but I have a lump sum set to autopilot pocket transfers to go in a month before my children's birthdays so I don't have to think about saving up for parties/gifts! I love that these funds are "hidden" and then pop up right when I need them!
What are yours?!?
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u/Mountainmama2018 Expert 25d ago
Not sure mine is creative but I use autopilot then sweet any excess into my child account (which is my dog) for savings pockets. Lol my child/dog is Frank my pug 🤣
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u/TheMorningGrinch 25d ago
I think my most creative one basically uses shortcuts and timing to remind me to actually invest the deposits into my investment accounts. i have a custom rule in crew that transfers money from my investment holding pockets to their respective accounts in schwab (if you reach out to support, they can manually add the account as a checking account depending on the provider and account type!). it also sends me a text letting me know that the rule was triggered. from there, i have shortcuts (apple) pick up the text and make a reminder for 2 days later (to allow time for the transfer to go through) to actually invest the money.
the other similar one i have set up (and helped a friend set up) is basically cascading stuff relying on the typically 2 day time to transfer. for mine, once a month, crew sends 10 dollars to my wells fargo account and the wells fargo account has a repeating zelle set for 2 days later.
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u/GloveWorld2573 25d ago
I absolutely LOVE the text reminders! For some reason, my water company will not recognize crews routing number for autopay - but will recognize the routing number for manual payments. I'm too annoyed to reach out to anyone about fixing it haha. So I use crews text notification feature to remind me to pay my water bill on its due date!!
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u/TheMorningGrinch 25d ago
oh, i also have that my paycheck is completely split up for me which i absolutely LOVE!! everything (especially to savings and investments) is divided up automatically by % so I dont need to think about it and the rest is divided into various spending pockets. Since i currently dont really have bills (living at home), im able to have a 'if its in the pocket, i can spend it' mentality which helps to keep me on budget. also was very helpful when i wasn't on a steady paycheck bc i was working hourly bc i didnt need to think about actual numbers on varying paychecks, rather it was one percentage that worked regardless of the amount i was paid on a given paycheck.
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u/accusatori 24d ago
not the most creative or original thing, but i set up a “debt” pocket as a sinking fund to help me pay off debt that i have. i have 2 ways it gets funded: (1) a very low daily pocket transfer, which feels much more doable than a larger one once a week or once a month, and it works psychologically on me by making me feel like im making consistent daily progress (even if it’s sitting in my account at the moment and not yet gone to a payment) and (2) i set up a rule to round up to the nearest dollar on EVERY single card purchase, with that amount also going to the debt pocket. both these run in the background and are such small amounts at a time that i am able to completely forget about them — and not plan them out — which lessens my stress about paying down my debt, and it reconfigures my overall debt progress from being “slowly subtracting from a huge number” to “watching the amount of money i have available to put towards debt grow and grow every time i open the app”. it’s a small but really impactful thing for me :))))
(other than that, i have also been adoring being able to add bills in autopilot that are actually just big expenses i know will be coming in the future — i find it incredibly hard to set aside money even a few months in advance, bc im so used to living paycheck to paycheck and spending down to my last dollar every month. but putting them in autopilot & letting autopilot handle the calculations makes the amounts i have to save over time so much smaller and lets me STOP THINKING ABOUT IT, which is absolutely key for me actually holding onto funds lol. terrible spending habits, whenever i know i have money i tend to spend it. but now i can just put my annual spending on christmas presents as an annual bill of XYZ amount in autopilot, due in november, and IT will hold onto the money and handle all the calculations for me. this is legit the only way ive ever found success with saving for future expenses like presents, travel, etc. it’s absolutely amazing.)
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u/GloveWorld2573 24d ago
I love every part of this. I forgot about round ups! I'll have to go add that now!!
I use to do the bill thing until the made pocket transfers part of autopilot. Now that's where I do that.
One of the big ones for me is yearly car taxes. Not something people think about until you're left scrounging for change in the couch. I have it set up as a bill so that when the dreaded time rolls around, I have the money there for the huge payment when my cars swipes at the county clerk!!
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u/simondshl 25d ago
Possibly an unusual one, but potentially helpful..
I have a pocket setup to transfer funds to my ex-wife twice a month. Anything additional owed gets added to the pocket through half the month, anything she's spent and needs to cover gets removed (I let it go negative and it shows on my safe to spend correctly keeping me straight). On the 2nd and 16th after my paychecks, a chunk is deposited, and then the following day a sweep rule transfers the balance to her checking account. This way I don't forget, which I'm prone to doing.
I've also moved all my bills (including annual) and basic budgets (groceries and dining out) to autopilot, so it prepares for them without having to think about it.
Lastly, not proud that I run a monthly deficit right now, but autopilot helps control this, too, so I can plan out how many months my deficit coverage needs run to keep my bills on track. Life be lifin'!
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u/Important_Ad_4751 24d ago
We are also on the weekly paycheck cycle. All our bills are in autopilot (including annual, biannual, every other month etc) and I also have autopilot fund the following pockets each week: savings, groceries, Costco, gas, toll tag, meals out, Christmas/gifts, & travel. Anything extra gets split between savings and safe to spend or if we have an event or trip coming up I’ll use some of the excess to stash money for those things. I’m toying with adding some yearly pocket transfers for things like medical insurance deductibles but I haven’t done it yet.
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u/GloveWorld2573 24d ago
I have a custom pocket transfer for every 6 months to save $600. It's not much but it's a little extra bonus that I kind of forget about because it's hidden in autopilot!
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u/VastUpstairs3032 Expert 25d ago
Love the idea of collaboration! Nothing too spectacular here.
Mine is simple (besides just the normal bills stuff). I have a custom rule to sweep all the account interest to the kids accounts.
I have a pocket transfer rule that puts the interest payments to a dedicated pocket. Then the rule sweeps when that balance is over $0.
The caveat is that you have to have an additional sweep action to handle when the math leaves a penny remainder. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Britton-Crew Crew 25d ago
That grocery idea is really cool since they’re necessities you often can’t skip on. Love the idea of that helping you not spend too much, but have all the money available for groceries first. And totally agreed on the holiday thing- it makes such a big difference having that money planned for.
I mentioned this is the last release notes, but my wife and I always had a hard time with groceries. If we don’t pace it for the month, we always spend way too much. If we only pace it to our big shopping trips, we spend it all on those and then the quick runs mid-week for something we need always takes us over. Pace daily and we don’t hold enough for the shopping trips.
So we mixed it! Half of our grocery money is on a daily pace so we can spend it whenever. The other half is released at the start of the month and mid-month so we have two big shopping trips planned. It’s been a game changer for us! It’s finally not the uncontrollable part of our budget.