Every habit in Spend Your Habits pays coins when you check it off, and every reward costs coins to buy. Simple on the surface. Underneath sits a small personal economy, and it only works while the prices feel fair. Here is how the app sets coin values, and where you should overrule it.
Key takeaways
Every habit pays a fixed value. Use the 5 to 50 slider or enter any whole number from 1 to 200.Suggestions are starting points. Price the resistance you feel, and override freely.Give streak goals a bonus worth at least three ordinary days.Let the pricing calculator balance your week: honest completion rate in, fair reward prices out.Coins in 30 seconds: how the economy works
Every habit has a fixed coin value that lands in your balance when you check it off. Rewards cost coins, so tonight's treat was paid for by this week's reps. The spending is guilt-free because you earned it, literally.
The whole system balances one week of effort against one week of treats. Your habits should earn roughly what your rewards cost, so a good week affords your treat list and a lazy week doesn't. Let the two sides drift apart and the coins stop meaning anything, at which point you quietly stop opening the app.
So how does the app decide what a habit is worth?
The difficulty slider and manual coin value
The common range uses ten slider stops, from Easy at +5 to Epic at +50, moving in steps of 5. You can also type any whole number from 1 to 200 into the coin field. The slider makes quick comparisons easy, while the number field covers personal values and imported library cards that do not sit on a five-coin step.
The built-in library gives you anchors: drinking two litres of water pays +10, an 8,000-step walk +15, and a full gym session +25. Keep those three in mind and you'll rarely need a formula.
Price by comparison. Is the new habit harder than your walk? Easier than the gym? Slot it between the two and move on. A couple of real weeks will show you what the habit actually costs, and adjusting is one tap.
Why hard habits should pay more (and when to override)
If flossing pays the same as a workout, you'll farm the easy checkmarks, feel productive, and quietly skip the habits that change your life. Paying more for harder habits is what keeps the whole system honest.
Difficulty is personal, too. Cooking at home is trivial for one person and a nightly fight for another, which is why every suggested value in the app is a default. Set the number that matches the resistance you feel rather than the minutes the habit takes. A two-minute habit you dread can be worth more than a comfortable hour.
Keep skipping a habit? Its price is too low. Raise the value until showing up feels like a deal you'd be silly to pass on, then let the coins do the arguing.
Streak goals: put a bonus on the finish line
Streak habits can carry a goal: set a target streak count, attach a one-time coin bonus, and the app counts you toward it. The daily payout keeps you moving, but the goal payout is what makes day 23 worth protecting when motivation dips.
Finish lines pull harder the closer you get. In a 2006 field study of café reward cards, customers bought coffee faster and faster as they approached the free one (Kivetz et al., 2006). Your streak goal borrows that same pull, so give it a value worth accelerating toward.
Size the bonus with respect. A 30-day streak goal that pays less than three ordinary days is an insult, and you'll treat it like one. Make the milestone reward something you'd genuinely plan a weekend around.
The pricing calculator: your rewards, priced by your week
Create a new recurring reward and the pricing calculator opens on its own, so its first price never comes out of thin air. Editing an existing reward or adding a one-off reward does not open it automatically. You can still open the calculator yourself whenever your weekly economy changes.
The calculator asks for the completion rate you honestly expect in a normal week. Each recurring habit's value times its scheduled frequency gives your weekly earning potential. A streak habit with a weekly goal contributes only that goal, not extra completions. One-off habits, streak goal bonuses, and freeze purchases are excluded because they are not sustainable weekly income.
Multiplying that potential by your completion rate creates the budget. The calculator then splits it across recurring rewards, weighted by each reward's indulgence and planned weekly quantity. Take a concrete week: daily water is +70, a daily 8,000-step walk is +105, and three gym sessions are +75. At 80% completion, the weekly budget is 200 coins. A weekly reward with indulgence 30 is priced at +100, while each of three rewards with indulgence 10 is priced at +33. Ordinary rounding leaves the total one coin short, and the app accepts that small difference silently.
Rewards use a 5 to 50 indulgence slider, but their coin price is a separate whole number with a minimum of 1. The editor suggests indulgence multiplied by 4.5 as a starting price. The weekly calculator can replace that suggestion with a budget-aware price, and you can still edit the result.