Free-To-Use

Understanding Free-To-Use

Free-To-Use is a powerful feature in monetr designed to help you manage your discretionary spending. It shows you how much money is available to spend after setting aside funds for your essential budgets, goals, and expenses. By calculating your Available Balance and subtracting the total funds allocated to your Goals and Expenses, Free-To-Use ensures that your essential expenses are covered, leaving you with a clear picture of your spending freedom.

How Free-To-Use Works

• Automatic Updates: Your Free-To-Use balance is automatically updated whenever there are changes to your budgets or account balances. This real-time adjustment means you always have an accurate view of your financial situation without manual intervention¹.

• Transaction Adjustments: If you change a Transaction’s “Spent From” field, it can affect your Free-To-Use balance. For instance, if a transaction is moved to be spent from a Goal or Expense with allocated funds, your Free-To-Use balance may increase.

• Impact of Expenses and Goals:

  • Expenses: These are recurring financial obligations like rent or subscriptions. Funds are automatically set aside for these expenses, ensuring they don’t unexpectedly impact your Free-To-Use balance. If an expense is removed, any funds set aside are returned to your Free-To-Use balance, increasing your available spending money.
  • Goals: These are savings targets for specific purposes, such as a vacation or a down payment. Allocating funds to a goal reduces your Free-To-Use balance, as the money is earmarked for future use. Achieving a goal or adjusting its target can free up funds, impacting your Free-To-Use balance.

Why Free-To-Use is Useful

• Simplified Budgeting: For budgeting newcomers, Free-To-Use provides a straightforward way to see how much money is safe to spend, reducing the risk of overspending.

• Financial Flexibility: Life is unpredictable, and Free-To-Use offers the flexibility to make spontaneous purchases or handle unexpected expenses without compromising your financial plans.

• Informed Spending Decisions: Knowing your Free-To-Use amount allows you to decide whether to save for a new goal or enjoy a night out, all while staying informed about your financial commitments.

Negative Free-To-Use

Your Free-To-Use balance can become negative if the funds allocated to your budgets exceed your available balance. While this situation should be avoided, it can occasionally happen due to the timing of monetr’s automations. For instance, if monetr processes your funding schedule before your paycheck’s transaction or balance is updated in monetr, your Free-To-Use balance might temporarily show as negative until the update occurs.

If this isn’t the case, it might indicate that you’re stretching your finances too thin. If your budgets require more than your regular income or if you’re spending beyond your Free-To-Use amount, it may be time to consider reducing your expenses or overall spending.

Transfer (Allocating Funds)

You can easily transfer funds between your Free-To-Use balance, Expenses, and Goals. This helps you adjust your budget as needed.

The Transfer Modal

The Transfer modal provides quick shortcuts above the dropdowns to help you move specific amounts easily. For the Free-To-Use balance, you can see the total available amount if you want to allocate all of it. For Expenses and Goals, you’ll see three numbers: the current allocation, the target amount, and the difference between them. These shortcuts make it easy to adjust your budget with just a click.