Categories and Budgets

Projected Cash Flow pulls in your Lunch Money categories and budgets, so your recurring items carry real context and you can see how projected spend compares to what you've budgeted.

Overview

Categories and budgets support enables you to:

See the Lunch Money category on each recurring item, right on its card
View a breakdown of projected spend by category for your selected time range
Compare that projected spend against your Lunch Money budget for the current month, with a warning when a category is on track to go over

How It Works

Category badges on recurring items

Each recurring transaction card shows a small badge with its Lunch Money category, when one is set. If an item doesn't have a category assigned in Lunch Money, no badge is shown — everything else about that item works exactly as before.

Projected Spend by Category

This widget totals your projected expenses — across whichever accounts you currently have selected — grouped by category, for your currently selected time range. Categories are sorted largest to smallest so you can see where your upcoming spend is concentrated.

This Month's Budget vs. Projected

If you have budgets configured in Lunch Money, this widget shows, for each budgeted category:

What you've already spent this month (from Lunch Money)
What's still projected to come due before the end of the month (from your recurring items)
The combined total against your budget for that category

Categories on track to exceed their budget are flagged so you can see it coming, not just after the fact.

Budgets are always monthly

Because Lunch Money tracks budgets by calendar month, the budget widget always reflects the current month — independent of whatever time range you've picked for your chart (Next Week, Next 3 Months, etc.).

Setting Up

There's nothing to configure in Projected Cash Flow:

Make sure your recurring items have categories assigned in Lunch Money
Set up budgets for the categories you want to track, in Lunch Money
Open your dashboard — category badges, the breakdown widget, and the budget widget all populate automatically

Projected Cash Flow only ever reads this data. It never creates, edits, or deletes categories or budgets in Lunch Money — manage those the same way you always have, directly in Lunch Money.

Use Cases

Seeing where your money actually goes

Instead of a flat list of upcoming payments, the category breakdown tells you at a glance that, say, half of next month's spend is housing and a smaller slice is subscriptions.

Catching a budget overage before it happens

If a category's already-spent-plus-projected total is creeping past what you budgeted, the budget widget flags it while there's still time to adjust — rather than discovering it after the month closes.

Best Practices

Categorize consistently in Lunch Money. The more of your recurring items have a category, the more complete your breakdown will be.
Set budgets for the categories you actually want to watch. The budget widget only shows categories that have a budget amount set for the current month.
Use it alongside account selection. Both widgets scope to whatever accounts you currently have selected, so you can look at category spend for a specific account or your whole picture.

Troubleshooting

A recurring item doesn't show a category badge

That item likely doesn't have a category assigned in Lunch Money yet. Assign one there and it will appear here the next time your data refreshes.

The budget widget says there's nothing to show

This means you don't currently have any budgets configured for this month in Lunch Money. Set one up there and it will appear automatically.

The numbers don't match what I see in Lunch Money exactly

The budget widget adds Lunch Money's own "spent so far this month" figure to projected upcoming recurring expenses for the rest of the month — so the total intentionally includes money that hasn't been spent yet, which is why it can differ from what Lunch Money shows for spend-to-date alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create or edit budgets from Projected Cash Flow?

No. Budgets and categories are managed entirely in Lunch Money; Projected Cash Flow only displays them.

What happens if my accounts use different currencies?

Both widgets convert everything to your primary currency before totaling, so the numbers stay accurate regardless of which currencies your selected accounts use.

Does this include one-time transactions I've added?

The category breakdown and budget widgets currently reflect recurring items, since those carry category information from Lunch Money. One-time transactions you've added directly in Projected Cash Flow are still included elsewhere on the dashboard, such as the cash flow chart.

Get Started

If you already use categories and budgets in Lunch Money, open your dashboard now to see them reflected automatically.

Need help? Contact our support team with any questions.

🧩Categories and Budgets