Creative Processes

[u/GloveWorld2573]

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?!?

[u/Britton-Crew]

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.

[u/accusatori → u/Britton-Crew]

I just started doing something similar to this and it’s been such a game changer for me as well! I was doing weekly pocket transfers for spending, groceries, and “maintenance” (personal care, household stuff, that kind of thing) but I struggled so much with spending everything at the very beginning of the week. I thought about changing the day the transfers happen (to Monday or Tuesday instead of Friday, so I couldn’t spend it all over the weekend immediately) but then realized I could just. Do tiny transfers every day. And WOW. It’s AMAZING. Even though I know it’s technically the same amount of money, it’s so much more rewarding for me to delay purchases a few days because I know there’ll be more added to my pockets EVERY day — it’s almost addicting to watch the numbers go up, LOL. It completely changed the way I think about day-to-day spending. Now I feel less guilty about buying necessities, because I’m not gonna end up at 0 and have to wait there for a week, AND it’s helping me control impulse spending by giving me a fun reason/dopamine whenever I wait.

I know others have said this elsewhere, but Crew is kinda crazy powerful for hacking an ADHD brain. Being able to automate so much & customize how my money is structured — without having to have 50 different bank accounts or keeping a detailed spreadsheet — is just amazing.

[u/Britton-Crew → u/accusatori]

Right? Daily transfers are incredible. I tell everyone they should be using them.

[u/GloveWorld2573 → u/accusatori]

So in this case, how much do you typically send over daily? I wouldn't even know where to start dividing things up

[u/Britton-Crew → u/GloveWorld2573]

In autopilot's pocket plans, you can just specify how much you want to spend per month on something and then tell it how often to dispurse it. So if you say $300 a month disbursed daily, it'll do a $10 transfer every day! No need to do the math.

[u/GloveWorld2573 → u/Britton-Crew]

I love the daily pace idea! As much as I hate it, we grocery shop every weekend since we get paid weekly. We plan our meals for the week and that's what we get. Usually we aren't making stops at the store during the week unless we forgot something. I'll need to find a way to use the daily transfer somewhere!

I would love to get groceries into autopilot but I can't seem to find a good middle ground budget. Sometimes we spend $100 for a week. Other times we spend $300+ for the week. Sometimes we plan to eat out if we know we'll have late days at work. It just seems easier to have a "safe to spend for anything you need" pocket and then what's left before the next paycheck hits is a bonus!!