Re-budgeting a period.
Some months break the plan in the first week — a job change, a surprise bill, a goal that no longer fits. The do-over flow lets you redo the committed budget for the current period, once. Here’s the shape of it and when it fits.
What a do-over is
A do-over replaces the committed plan for the current period with a new one. The numbers reset; reconciliation for the period restarts against the new plan. Drift narration picks up from there.
It’s not a third flow — it’s the existing planning surfaces re-opened mid-period. You walk the same wizard or manual screens you used to commit, and the same commit step finalises the new plan.
The entry point is Settings → Re-budget a period. It only shows the current committed period. Past periods are read-only from Budget → Recap; they don’t do over.
A recovery mechanic, not a habit
The monthly ritual already returns the budget wizard at every period boundary — that’s the regular place to re-shape a plan. The do-over is for the case where waiting until the next first-of-the-month doesn’t fit, because what changed has already invalidated this period’s plan.
When it fits
A few shapes the do-over is built for:
- Income shifted mid-period. A job change, a paycheck delay, a side income that landed or ended. The plan for the rest of the month needs different numbers, not a different narration.
- A new fixed bill arrived.A bill that wasn’t in the plan and isn’t small — medical, legal, a deposit. The variable targets have to give somewhere; the plan should say where.
- A goal closed or opened. The goal you were saving toward is done, or a new urgent one replaced it. Carrying forward a contribution that no longer has a target distorts the rest of the plan.
- The first commit was a guess. Some first plans are assembled under pressure with incomplete information. A second pass a week or two in can replace a guess with a plan grounded in what this month is actually doing.
Drift inside what the plan already covers — groceries running over, dining well under — doesn’t need a do-over. The narration is doing its job; the plan is sound; let the rest of the month play through and re-shape it in the next budget wizard.
Picking a mode
The do-over offers two paths. Both end at commit and both stamp the period as having used its single do-over.
Wizard mode · 7 steps · about 6 minutes
The same shape as the monthly budget wizard. The draft step uses the partial month’s actuals to re-propose variable targets.
Manual mode · a few minutes
The full-page editor used for granular edits. No draft step; you set the numbers directly.
What each tier sees
The do-over is on every tier. The choice of modes is gated by tier because the wizard’s draft step uses AI generation, and AI generation is metered.
Mode availability
On Free, the wizard path is shown but unavailable, with the trade-off spelled out in the surface itself: wizard re-runs use the month’s AI generation; the manual path leaves it available for next month’s regular plan. Either path produces a committed budget; the wizard’s difference is the AI-drafted variable targets.
Plus subscribers see both modes from the same surface and pick freely. The wizard uses one of the month’s AI generations either way.
One per period
Each committed period gets exactly one do-over, ever. After you commit the new plan, the do-over surface is closed for that period on both tiers — a second attempt is refused at the UI and at the server.
The cap is on the period, not the month-of-the-year and not the account. If you do over May, June still has its own do-over slot when June opens. If you don’t use May’s, it doesn’t roll forward.
Why the cap exists
The do-over is held to one per period so the plan stays the read of the month, not a moving target. A plan re-shaped three or four times in the same period is closer to drift narration than a committed budget — the recap can’t describe what the month was against, and the monthly ritual loses its boundary.
What happens to the previous plan
The new commit replaces the previous plan for the current period. Specifically:
At do-over commit
Recap keeps both plans, marked. The original commit shows as the first plan for the period; the do-over shows as the one drift was reconciled against from its commit time forward. Neither is deleted.
Cancelling mid-flow
Opening the do-over and stepping back without committing leaves the existing plan in place and the do-over slot untouched. The slot is only consumed at commit. The flow has the same save-and-close affordance as the monthly budget wizard — an in-progress do-over can be resumed before the period ends.