Budget Rollover

Rollover changes how a budget transitions between periods. With rollover off, every new month starts at the original limit regardless of what happened the month before. With rollover on, any unused amount carries forward into the next month, building up a surplus you can draw on later. The budget keeps a running memory of the room you have saved instead of resetting to zero each time.

The result is a budget that behaves more like a real-world envelope: a quiet month gives you breathing room later. Only positive unused budget carries forward — the carryover clamps at zero, so a heavy month can spend down the surplus you built up but never carries in as a negative.

Rollover suits categories where some months are quiet and others are heavy by nature. A few examples:

• Groceries - lighter the week before a vacation, heavier when you are restocking after.
• Utilities - seasonal swings between winter heating and summer cooling.
• Dining out - quieter during a focused saving month, busier when friends are in town.
• Personalised care or hobbies - irregular by their nature.

For these categories, a rigid monthly cap fights the way money actually flows. Rollover lets you keep an annualised target while still seeing month-by-month progress.

To turn rollover on or off for a budget:

1. Open the Budgets page.
2. Select the budget you want to change.
3. Flip the rollover toggle.

The change applies starting next month. The current month continues using whatever rollover setting was in effect when it began, so turning rollover on partway through the month does not retroactively create a carryover. You can change this setting as often as you like.

Carryover only ever moves in one direction: positive unused budget carries forward. If you finish a month under the limit, the unused amount is added to your accumulated surplus. If you finish over the limit, the overspend draws down that surplus instead of carrying in as a negative. Next month’s available is the limit plus whatever surplus remains, and the carryover clamps at zero, so it can never pull next month below the base limit.

In practice that means a run of heavy months can exhaust the cushion you built up, at which point every month simply starts back at the plain limit. Overspending is never punished by a negative starting balance - the worst case is that you are back to a normal, un-rolled budget until you bank some surplus again.

Imagine a Groceries budget with a $600 monthly limit and rollover enabled. In May you spend $500. The unused $100 rolls into June, so June’s available is $600 + $100 = $700. You spend $750 in June, ending $50 above what was available. That overspend simply empties the carryover rather than carrying in as a negative, so July starts back at the base $600 — not $550. The carryover clamps at zero, so no matter how far a month runs over, the next month never opens below the plain limit.

Rollover lets a quiet month fund a busier one without ever leaving you in the hole. The surplus you build is there to spend down, and the base limit is always the floor you fall back to.