Afloat
Payday is nine days away and your banking app shows a healthy balance. Can you spend it? Not all of it. Part of that money already belongs to rent, your phone and the subscriptions that will land before the next paycheck.
Step 1. Start from what you actually have
Count the money you can reach today: your current account and cash. Leave out savings and anything you’ve already set aside.
Step 2. Take out the bills due before payday
- rent or mortgage, if it’s due before the next paycheck;
- phone, internet and utilities;
- subscriptions and installments dated in this period;
- the required card payment, if it falls before payday.
What’s left is money that isn’t promised to anyone yet.
Step 3. Split the rest by the days until payday
Divide it by the days left, counting today. That’s your daily number: what you can spend today without borrowing from next week.
Step 4. Let the number move
Spent less today? Tomorrow’s number grows a little. Spent more? It shrinks, spread across the days left. No need to start over: one surprise just makes the remaining days a bit tighter.
What usually breaks the count
- a yearly bill that happens to fall this month;
- counting money that hasn’t arrived yet;
- treating the whole balance as free money on payday.
How Afloat does this for you
Afloat does the same count for the month: bills first, the rest split by the days left. Every morning the Home screen shows “Safe to spend today”. When income lands, it simply tops up your balance. If money gets short, Afloat shows what to move, skip or take from savings.
This is general information, not financial advice.
