1 October is when a new budget often starts while September is still unfinished. September may still have blank categories, missing cash, and a refund that landed late. If October begins on top of that, both months lie. Kharch Log has been writing bank and UPI alerts into your Google Sheet all month. There is no bank login to refresh. Finish September's blanks, write three totals, then set October after rent and EMIs are listed. Half an hour is enough if the SMS is already in the Sheet.
Close September before you trust October
Filter September for rows with no category. Label the large amounts first. A blank rent row matters more than a tiny blank. Do not sketch October until those large September rows have names. Clear the review items dated in September. If two alerts describe one debit, keep the bank SMS and mark the other as a copy. Add cash you still remember from the last week of September. A close that ignores cash tells October you have room you do not have. Stop when the remaining blanks are small.
Write three September totals: spending, family support, and savings you moved on purpose. Rent stays inside spending. SIP does not. If one total shocks you, open that category before you set a new cap. The shock is a category, not a character flaw. Write one sentence on why September was high or low. October will not remember a mood. The sentence is the memory. Then leave September alone unless a late refund arrives.
- Label September's large blank rows before any October cap
- Mark duplicate alerts so one debit is not counted twice
- Add the cash you still remember from the last week
- Three totals: spending, family support, and savings moved on purpose
Carry promises forward, not guilt
Carry unpaid promises into October, not last month's guilt. Card swipes already counted in September stay there. The card bill you pay in October is a transfer. A fee due on the 5th belongs on the committed list. A September dinner does not. Rent due this week is committed. A hope to order less is not a row. Write committed amounts in the header before any food cap. Keep wishes on a separate line so they are not mixed with EMIs.
A late SMS for a September purchase stays in September even if you label it on 1 October. Use the bank date. A coffee on 1 October is October. Do not throw late arrivals into the new month just because that filter is open. If you keep one running Sheet, filter by date instead of moving rows. The SMS date is the guide, not the day you found time to label. An October that quietly includes September's last weekend will make the new cap look easier than it is.
Set October from what is already committed
List October commitments in order: rent, EMIs, SIP or RD, school if due, and the family transfer. Subtract them from the salary you expect. What remains is the pool for variable costs. Caps come from that pool, not from a wish. If the pool is smaller than last month's variable spend, name the cut now. Say whether it is delivery, shopping, or a trip. A lower cap with no named cut is ignored by the 10th. The Sheet will show the miss. It will not choose the cut.
If the salary SMS arrives on the 1st, label it income. A credit with no label gets used to excuse an expense. Set known income, then commitments, then caps. If salary is late, use the figure you expect and correct the header when it arrives. Do not spend as if it were already in the account. The app will not predict your employer. It files the credit when the bank sends the SMS. Until then the header should say the salary is not in yet.
- Committed list first: rent, EMI, SIP, school, family
- Name the cut if the pool is smaller than last month
- Salary SMS is income, not a mystery credit
- Provisional caps stay marked until salary actually arrives
Keep the same Sheet
Do not start a new Sheet for October unless the file is damaged. A new file splits search and your memory of payee names. If you use a tab per month, keep the same columns. Do not rename categories on the 1st for style. Renames break a comparison of September and October. Add a category only for a real gap, such as a premium month. The app keeps writing to the Sheet you connected. A new file on the 1st is how the next SMS looks lost.
Put a reminder on the 8th as well as the 1st. The 1st sets caps. The 8th checks rent and the first weekend. Without that second look, the 1st is theatre. Use a short weekly review on the first weekend against the caps you just wrote. If the 1st sitting ran long, you invented too many new rules. Next month, stick to blanks, three totals, and the committed list. The Sheet with the SMS rows is what you will still open when the month gets noisy.
Questions people actually ask
I only have twenty minutes on 1 October. What do I skip? Use the time on September's largest blank rows, the three totals, and October's committed list. Skip a new template. Three caps are enough: food, travel, and shopping. A perfect close you delay will slip to mid-month. The SMS is already captured. You are labelling, not rebuilding the month from chat screenshots.
Should I delete September spends I regret? No. A real purchase stays. Fix duplicates, wrong amounts, and unmatched refunds. Leave the dinner you regret. October's cap is the response, not a delete key. Deleting a real row makes the Sheet disagree with the account. You will stop trusting the totals. If a shared note is too detailed, shorten the words and keep the amount.
My salary arrives on the 7th. Do I wait to close September? Close September on the 1st even if salary arrives later. Mark October caps as provisional until the credit lands. On salary day, confirm the income SMS and adjust the pool if the figure differs. Do not delay the close until salary day. A week of new SMS will pile onto an unclosed month. Two jobs on one tired evening is how the ritual gets skipped.
Close September's large blanks and write three totals before October caps, using rent, EMIs, and savings as the committed list. A weekly rhythm after that is in tracking spending every week. The Kharch Log features page shows the Sheet those SMS already use. On the 8th, check the first weekend against the caps you wrote.