How Ambrosia Thinks About Money

4 min read

Most money problems don’t come from a lack of discipline. They come from mixing different financial concepts into one place.

Ambrosia is built around a simple idea:

Money storage, spending plans, and financial understanding are different things — and they should stay separate.

This page explains how Ambrosia models money, and why that separation matters.

1. Money has different roles

In real life, money plays multiple roles at the same time:

  • Some money is stored (cash, savings, reserves)
  • Some money is planned (what you intend to spend)
  • Some money is already spent
  • Some money exists only as information (patterns, trends, warnings)

Ambrosia reflects this reality by giving each role its own place.

2. Wallets: tracking balances & savings

Wallets represent user accounts or manual savings buckets (Ambrosia mirrors balances; it does not hold funds).

They answer one question only:

“How much money do I have, and where?”

Wallets are used for:

  • cash
  • bank accounts
  • cards
  • savings
  • emergency buffers
  • reserves
  • investment balances

If you want to track savings, record them in a wallet that represents the account or savings bucket.

Example:

  • You create an Emergency Wallet
  • You transfer money from your main wallet into it
  • Over time, the balance grows
  • When the balance reaches a level you’re comfortable with, you know your buffer exists

Wallets track balances, not intentions.

3. Projects: where spending is evaluated

Projects are budget scopes, not money containers.

They answer a different question:

“Did I stay within the budget I planned?”

Projects are used for:

  • monthly budgets
  • household expenses
  • trips
  • renovations
  • events
  • business operating costs

A project tracks:

  • how much you planned to spend
  • how much you actually spent
  • whether you are under or over budget

A project does not hold money. Money is spent from wallets and evaluated against project budgets.

A subtle but important point

A project can represent a goal only in this sense:

“My goal is to complete this project without exceeding the budget.”

For example:

  • Building a house → the goal is staying within the construction budget → the money itself still lives in wallets

4. Budgets: planning, not saving

Budgets are plans. They are not money.

In Ambrosia, budgets exist on three levels:

  • Project level – the total planned amount
  • Category level – major areas (housing, food, transport)
  • Subcategory level – detailed control (groceries, fuel, subscriptions)

Budgets:

  • set limits
  • create structure
  • help you make trade-offs

Budgets do not:

  • store money
  • accumulate balances
  • replace savings

If money disappears when you overspend a budget, that’s a sign the system is wrong. In Ambrosia, overspending becomes information, not a hidden failure.

5. Transactions and transfers: what actually happens

Two actions describe financial reality:

  • Transactions
    • income and expenses
    • what you earn and what you spend
  • Transfers
    • intentional movement of money between wallets
    • saving, reallocating, separating funds

Example:

  • Salary arrives → income transaction into main wallet
  • You move part of it → transfer to savings wallet
  • You buy groceries → expense transaction linked to a project budget

This separation keeps actions clear and traceable.

6. Insights and alerts: understanding, not control

Ambrosia does not try to control your behavior. It helps you see it.

Insights and alerts exist to:

  • show how much you can still spend until month-end
  • warn you before budgets are exceeded
  • highlight patterns you might miss
  • surface irregular or unusual activity

They don’t tell you what to do. They help you decide.

7. Why this separation matters

When money concepts are mixed:

  • savings feel like spending
  • budgets feel like balances
  • overspending feels like failure
  • financial stress increases

When they are separated:

  • savings are visible
  • spending is intentional
  • trade-offs are clear
  • decisions feel calmer

Ambrosia is designed to support awareness first, not automation first.

In short

  • Wallets represent balances and savings (Ambrosia mirrors user accounts and manual savings buckets)
  • Projects track spending against budgets
  • Budgets plan limits, not balances
  • Transfers represent intentional movements between wallets
  • Insights turn activity into understanding

Once these roles are clear, managing money becomes less about discipline — and more about clarity.