I’m trying to build a super simple way to track “what’s actually safe to spend today” across a few checking accounts and multiple credit cards, without getting tripped up by statement dates, pending charges, or those once-a-year bills. Most apps show balances or category budgets, but I want something that blends timing + upcoming obligations. Has anyone done a “household cash runway” tracker like this?
Here’s the beginner-friendly version I’m imagining:
- Inputs I can keep up with: current balances, pending transactions, next paychecks, card statement cut/due dates, upcoming bills (including annual ones), and a small buffer for surprises.
- Outputs I want:
- Safe-to-spend today (cash I can use without messing up future bills)
- Days of runway (how long I could go with $0 new income before a bill bounces)
- Heads-up if a card is getting too close to what I can pay in full next cycle
Questions I’m stuck on:
- Should I count credit card purchases as “spent” on the day I swipe (cash-based), or when the statement is due (statement-based)? How do you avoid double-counting when the card payment hits checking?
- What’s a low-effort way to handle annual/irregular expenses so they reduce safe-to-spend a little each day (sinking funds) without me micromanaging categories?
- How do you factor pending transactions and autopays that haven’t posted yet, especially when multiple cards have different cut/due dates?
- If income is irregular, what’s a simple rule for setting the buffer so the runway metric doesn’t swing wildly?
- Any spreadsheet formulas or templates that get 90% of the way there with minimal maintenance?
- Are there apps that already do this timing-aware safe-to-spend (not just envelopes), or bank features that approximate it?
If you’ve built something like this, what did you track, what did you ignore, and what ended up being too annoying to maintain? I’m aiming for “accurate enough” without turning this into a second job.
