What fixed and variable expenses are.
A fixed expense repeats on a schedule, every month or every year, like rent or car insurance. Variable ones follow what you do that month, so what goes on groceries or eating out rises and falls. Jeff Banks labels every spending category fixed or variable, and the label depends on the category alone, whatever the charge comes to and however often it arrives. For now the app shows those labels and the category names in Spanish, as quoted here.
Which expenses count as fixed in Jeff Banks?
In Month, these 6 spending categories carry the “Fijo” (fixed) label.
- Suscripciones (subscriptions)
- Móvil e internet (phone and internet)
- Alquiler e hipoteca (rent and mortgage)
- Luz, agua y gas (utilities)
- Seguros (insurance)
- Préstamos y créditos (loans and credit)
Health insurance can land somewhere else. Policies from the health insurers the rules know go under “Salud y deporte” (health and fitness), which is variable.
Variable expenses are everything else.
The rest of the spending categories are labeled “Variable”, for example “Supermercado” (groceries), “Restaurantes” (restaurants), “Transporte” (transport), and “Ocio” (leisure). That includes “Sin categoría” (uncategorized), so a charge Jeff Banks cannot sort counts with the variable ones.
Homeowners' association fees are a variable expense in Jeff Banks even when you pay the same amount every month, because they go under “Hogar” (home).
Is electricity a fixed or a variable expense?
Jeff Banks counts electricity as a fixed expense, because it files it under “Luz, agua y gas” (utilities), one of the fixed categories. The bill comes regularly and its amount follows what you use, so every electricity bill shows as “Fijo”, whatever it comes to.
A phone bill with an extra on it costs more that month and is still labeled “Fijo”, because “Móvil e internet” (phone and internet) is a fixed category. Car insurance you pay once a year appears in Month only when the charge arrives, and that month it is one more fixed expense, like everything under “Seguros” (insurance).
The label sits in Month's category table.
Open Month and, in the “Por categoría” table, leave “Gastos” (spending) selected. The last column, “Tipo”, reads “Fijo” or “Variable” on every row. Switch to “Ingresos” (income) and the column goes away, since only spending gets a label. Any plan shows the column, Free included.
Month does not total fixed expenses on their own. Press the “Tipo” header and the table lists the fixed categories first and the variable ones below, each with its amount and its share of the month's spending. Tapping a row shows the movements behind it.
A sample month.
The card splits September's spending by category, like the one on Home, which does not show the label. The sample has spending in 10 categories that month. Month counts “Alquiler e hipoteca” (rent and mortgage), “Préstamos y créditos” (loans and credit), “Luz, agua y gas” (utilities), “Móvil e internet” (phone and internet), and “Suscripciones” (subscriptions) as fixed, 5 in all, and the remaining 5 as variable.
The category with the most spending is “Alquiler e hipoteca” (rent and mortgage), at 54% of the total. The electricity bill goes from €51.22 in August to €63.44 in September, and it counts as fixed both months.
What happens when you change a movement's category?
Month moves the whole amount to the new category. Move the gym payment from “Salud y deporte” (health and fitness) to “Suscripciones” (subscriptions) and it leaves the variable rows for the fixed ones.
With Premium you can also create categories of your own, and each one counts as a built-in category you choose. Its row in Month takes that category's label, so a “Garage space” that counts as “Alquiler e hipoteca” (rent and mortgage) is a fixed expense.
Are subscriptions fixed expenses?
In Month they are, since “Suscripciones” (subscriptions) is one of the fixed categories. Payments finds your subscriptions another way. It groups each merchant's charges and checks whether they repeat at a steady pace, from monthly to yearly, without looking at Month's label.
In the sample, Payments counts the gym fee as a subscription, even though “Salud y deporte” (health and fitness) is variable. Electricity is fixed, and Payments only suggests it as a possible subscription, marked “Importe variable” (variable amount), because the amount changes. Rent does not appear in Payments, and the loan repayment shows under Debts.
The beta is invite-only.
Leave your email and we'll send you an invitation when a spot opens up.
