Buckets & items
The purpose ledger: organize money into buckets and fund items with priorities, minimums, and ideals.
Buckets vs items
A bucket is a group (folder) of related purposes. An item is a specific job for money inside that bucket. Example: bucket “Home” with items “Utilities”, “HOA”, and “Appliance fund”.
The system also maintains a special Ready to Assign area for money that has arrived but not yet been given a job.
Item types
| Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Operating | Day-to-day categories and recurring spending. |
| Sinking fund | Save a little each period for a known future cost. |
| Goal | Target amount and optional target date. |
| Loan | Debt fields such as principal, rate, min payment, payoff date, lender. |
| Emergency | Dedicated emergency reserves (depending on portfolio emergency settings). |
Available, min, max, ideal
- Available — how much is currently assigned to the item and not yet spent.
- Min balance — floor you want to maintain; allocation can prioritize shortfalls.
- Max balance — optional cap so extra dollars stop landing here.
- Ideal assign amount — preferred funding amount when assigning (for example each payday).
Items can show as overspent when available goes negative—a signal to cover or reassign.
Priority
Lower priority numbers are funded first when you use By priority allocation. You can also allocate manually to a specific item without using priority order. Put true essentials and emergency shortfalls at the top of the list; stretch goals can wait.
Views in the app
- List / table — scan items, available balances, and actions (including add transaction and transfer).
- Search & filters — narrow the buckets page by text and status so large portfolios stay usable.
- Move between buckets — relocate an item to another bucket in one step without losing balances or history.
- Item detail — edit fields, see holdings, and add transactions with the item pre-filled.
- Matrix — item × account balances when purpose spans multiple accounts.