diff --git a/src/export/json.test.ts b/src/export/json.test.ts
index eaef723..ab11369 100644
--- a/src/export/json.test.ts
+++ b/src/export/json.test.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import {
 } from "./json.ts";
 import { createSeedDataset } from "../domain/seed.ts";
 import { monthView, yearView } from "../domain/views.ts";
+import { occurrencesByMonth } from "../domain/occurrences.ts";
 import type { Dataset } from "../domain/types.ts";
 
 function populated(): Dataset {
@@ -663,3 +664,77 @@ describe("startDate granularity under the anchored model", () => {
     expect(() => parseDatasetJson(withCost("lastCharge", "everyNMonths", "2026-09-31"))).toThrow(/impossible/i);
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * The other half of the same rule, and the half nobody checked: an anchored
+ * cost has no slots, so `anchoredOccurrences` steps forward from its latest
+ * CHARGE's own `Purchase.date`. `PURCHASE_DATE` allows "YYYY-MM" — right for
+ * an ordinary purchase, wrong for this one — so a month-only anchored charge
+ * imported clean and threw out of the very first fold, from a frame naming no
+ * cost. That falsified this file's own claim to validate far enough that the
+ * fold cannot throw, and made restoring a backup reproduce the crash.
+ */
+describe("an anchored cost's CHARGE dates need a day at the import boundary", () => {
+  function withCharge(anchoring: string, kind: string, purchaseDate: string): string {
+    const data: any = createSeedDataset("2026-09");
+    data.posts[0].id = "housing";
+    data.recurring = [{
+      id: "r1", name: "Bill", order: 0, archived: false,
+      amount: { amount: 300, currency: "DKK" },
+      // Before the charge, so the charge's own date is the anchor the walk
+      // uses rather than being masked by `max(latest, startDate)`.
+      startDate: anchoring === "lastCharge" ? "2026-08-04" : "2026-08",
+      recurrence: kind === "everyNMonths" ? { kind, n: 1 } : { kind, n: 30 },
+      anchoring, splitMode: "percent",
+      splits: [{ postId: "housing", value: 100, absorbsRemainder: true }],
+    }];
+    data.purchases = [{
+      id: "p1", date: purchaseDate, description: "Bill",
+      total: { amount: 300, currency: "DKK" }, splitMode: "percent",
+      splits: [{ postId: "housing", value: 100, absorbsRemainder: true }],
+      schedule: null,
+      source: anchoring === "lastCharge"
+        ? { recurringId: "r1" }
+        : { recurringId: "r1", occurrenceDate: "2026-09" },
+    }];
+    return JSON.stringify(data);
+  }
+
+  test("a month-only date on an anchored monthly charge is refused, naming the cost", () => {
+    expect(() => parseDatasetJson(withCharge("lastCharge", "everyNMonths", "2026-09"))).toThrow(
+      /Bill.*day-granular/,
+    );
+  });
+
+  test("a month-only date on an anchored DAY-granular charge is refused too", () => {
+    expect(() => parseDatasetJson(withCharge("lastCharge", "everyNDays", "2026-09"))).toThrow(
+      /Bill.*day-granular/,
+    );
+  });
+
+  test("a day-granular date on an anchored charge is accepted, and folds", () => {
+    const dataset = parseDatasetJson(withCharge("lastCharge", "everyNMonths", "2026-09-20"));
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(dataset, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("a day-SHAPED but calendar-impossible date on an anchored charge is refused", () => {
+    expect(() => parseDatasetJson(withCharge("lastCharge", "everyNMonths", "2026-02-30"))).toThrow(
+      /impossible/i,
+    );
+  });
+
+  test("a month-only date on a CALENDAR cost's charge is still accepted", () => {
+    // It settles the slot in `occurrenceDate`; its own date is never stepped
+    // from, so there is nothing here to require a day.
+    const dataset = parseDatasetJson(withCharge("calendar", "everyNMonths", "2026-09"));
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(dataset, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("every dataset this boundary accepts can be folded", () => {
+    // The claim in `parseDatasetJson`'s own doc, asserted rather than stated.
+    for (const date of ["2026-09-01", "2026-09-20", "2026-09-30"]) {
+      const dataset = parseDatasetJson(withCharge("lastCharge", "everyNMonths", date));
+      expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(dataset, "2027-06")).not.toThrow();
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/export/json.ts b/src/export/json.ts
index ff6537a..0dc78f7 100644
--- a/src/export/json.ts
+++ b/src/export/json.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import type { Currency, CurrencyDef, Dataset, MonthId } from "../domain/types.ts
 import { migrate } from "../store/migrations.ts";
 import { monthOf } from "../domain/months.ts";
 import { toDayOrdinal } from "../domain/days.ts";
+import { chargeDateNeedsDay, startDateNeedsDay } from "../domain/granularity.ts";
 
 export class ImportValidationError extends Error {
   constructor(message: string) {
@@ -39,10 +40,13 @@ const MONTH_ID = /^\d{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])$/;
 const PURCHASE_DATE = /^\d{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])(-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01]))?$/;
 /**
  * The day-granular subset of `PURCHASE_DATE`: "YYYY-MM-DD" only, no month-only
- * form. `everyNDays` and `everyNWeeks` hand `startDate` straight to `addDays`
- * (`src/domain/occurrences.ts`), which throws on a month-only date — so those
- * kinds need this narrower shape, checked here rather than three months later
- * inside a fold.
+ * form. WHICH values need this narrower shape is `startDateNeedsDay` /
+ * `chargeDateNeedsDay` in `src/domain/granularity.ts`, not a rule this file
+ * restates: `everyNDays` and `everyNWeeks` hand `startDate` straight to
+ * `addDays`, `everyNMonths` anchored to `lastCharge` hands it to
+ * `addMonthsToDate`, and an anchored cost's CHARGE dates are stepped from the
+ * same way (`src/domain/occurrences.ts`). All of those throw on a month-only
+ * date, so it is refused here rather than three months later inside a fold.
  */
 const DAY_GRANULAR_DATE = /^\d{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01])$/;
 
@@ -228,11 +232,19 @@ function requireSplits(
  * Validates far enough that the fold cannot throw on the imported data: every
  * split points at a real post, every purchase has exactly one remainder
  * absorber, every MonthId parses, every rule version resolves unambiguously
- * to a number rather than to NaN or a missing rate, and every recurring
- * cost's startDate is both granular enough for its recurrence kind
- * (day-granular for everyNDays/everyNWeeks, since occurrencesOf hands it
- * straight to addDays) and calendar-valid (no "2026-09-31"), since shape and
- * range alone let an impossible date through.
+ * to a number rather than to NaN or a missing rate, and every date the
+ * projection walk will STEP FROM is both granular enough for the schedule
+ * that reads it and calendar-valid (no "2026-09-31"), since shape and range
+ * alone let an impossible date through. That last one covers a recurring
+ * cost's own `startDate` and, for an anchored (`lastCharge`) cost, the `date`
+ * of every purchase charged to it — an anchored cost has no slots, so its
+ * charges' own dates are the anchors, and a month-only one there used to
+ * import clean and take down every money route on the next fold.
+ *
+ * Note the order this runs in: `migrate` first, so what is validated is the
+ * upgraded dataset. A file the migration produces must therefore satisfy
+ * every rule below — see the 7 -> 8 step, which expands exactly the
+ * month-only charge dates this function refuses.
  */
 export function parseDatasetJson(text: string): Dataset {
   let raw: unknown;
@@ -357,8 +369,7 @@ export function parseDatasetJson(text: string): Dataset {
     // always need a day-granular startDate. `endedFrom` needs no such check —
     // it is only ever compared lexicographically, never fed to `addDays`.
     const dayGranular = DAY_GRANULAR_DATE.test(cost.startDate);
-    const needsDay = cost.recurrence.kind !== "everyNMonths" || cost.anchoring === "lastCharge";
-    if (needsDay && !dayGranular) {
+    if (startDateNeedsDay(cost.recurrence.kind, cost.anchoring) && !dayGranular) {
       throw new ImportValidationError(
         `${label} has a "${cost.recurrence.kind}" recurrence anchored to "${cost.anchoring}" with a ` +
           `month-only start date "${cost.startDate}"; it needs a day-granular startDate ("YYYY-MM-DD")`,
@@ -468,6 +479,34 @@ export function parseDatasetJson(text: string): Dataset {
           );
         }
       }
+
+      // An anchored cost has no slots, so this purchase's OWN date is the
+      // anchor `anchoredOccurrences` steps forward from — under every
+      // recurrence kind, day-precisely. `PURCHASE_DATE` above allows
+      // "YYYY-MM", which is right for an ordinary purchase and wrong here: a
+      // month-only date would import clean and then throw out of the very
+      // first fold, from a frame that names no cost. The cost's own
+      // `startDate` has been checked this way since the anchored model
+      // landed; its charges were the half nobody checked.
+      if (chargeDateNeedsDay(cost.anchoring)) {
+        if (!DAY_GRANULAR_DATE.test(purchase.date)) {
+          throw new ImportValidationError(
+            `${label} is a charge for "${cost.name}", which is anchored to its last charge, so its ` +
+              `date is what the next charge is measured from; it needs a day-granular date ` +
+              `("YYYY-MM-DD"), not "${purchase.date}"`,
+          );
+        }
+        // Day-shaped is not day-valid — same reason `startDate` is routed
+        // through the domain's own parser above.
+        try {
+          toDayOrdinal(purchase.date);
+        } catch (error) {
+          throw new ImportValidationError(
+            `${label} is a charge for "${cost.name}" and has a calendar-impossible date ` +
+              `"${purchase.date}" (${(error as Error).message})`,
+          );
+        }
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/src/store/actions.test.ts b/src/store/actions.test.ts
index 3836940..38aa78c 100644
--- a/src/store/actions.test.ts
+++ b/src/store/actions.test.ts
@@ -1055,6 +1055,129 @@ describe("addPurchase/updatePurchase enforce the source/occurrenceDate pairing",
   });
 });
 
+/**
+ * Every guard this model shipped with checked the COST's `startDate`
+ * granularity. Nobody checked the CHARGE's own date — and an anchored cost has
+ * no slots, so its latest charge's `Purchase.date` is exactly what
+ * `anchoredOccurrences` steps forward from. A month-only one was accepted by
+ * both write paths and then threw out of the very next fold, taking every
+ * money route down: `emptyDraft` seeds `date: monthId`, so month-only was the
+ * DEFAULT for a new purchase, and no UI route could undo it afterwards.
+ *
+ * Each test folds afterwards rather than only asserting the throw: the point
+ * is not that a message appears, it is that no dataset the store accepts can
+ * take the fold down.
+ */
+describe("a charge for an anchored cost needs a day-granular date", () => {
+  function seeded(recurrence: Parameters<typeof actions.addRecurringCost>[1]["recurrence"]) {
+    const d = createSeedDataset("2026-09");
+    const post = d.posts[0]!;
+    // Starts BEFORE the charge, so the charge's own date is what the walk
+    // anchors on — `max(latest, startDate)` would otherwise hide the bug
+    // behind a day-granular startDate.
+    const cost = actions.addRecurringCost(d, {
+      name: "Phone", archived: false,
+      amount: { amount: 300, currency: "DKK" },
+      startDate: "2026-08-04",
+      recurrence,
+      anchoring: "lastCharge", splitMode: "percent",
+      splits: [{ postId: post.id, value: 100, absorbsRemainder: true }],
+    });
+    return { d, post, cost };
+  }
+
+  function charge(postId: string, recurringId: string, date: string) {
+    return {
+      date,
+      description: "Phone",
+      total: { amount: 300, currency: "DKK" },
+      splitMode: "percent" as const,
+      splits: [{ postId, value: 100, absorbsRemainder: true }],
+      schedule: null,
+      source: { recurringId },
+    };
+  }
+
+  test("addPurchase refuses a month-only date on a monthly anchored cost", () => {
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 });
+    expect(() => actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09"))).toThrow(
+      /Phone.*day-granular|day \("YYYY-MM-DD"\)/,
+    );
+    expect(d.purchases).toHaveLength(0);
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("addPurchase refuses a month-only date on a DAY-granular anchored cost too", () => {
+    // The precheck in `anchoredOccurrences` used to cover `everyNMonths`
+    // only, so this shape fell through to a bare "Not a day-granular IsoDate"
+    // out of `addDays`, naming no cost at all.
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNDays", n: 30 });
+    expect(() => actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09"))).toThrow(/Phone/);
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("addPurchase refuses a month-only date on a WEEKLY anchored cost too", () => {
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNWeeks", n: 2, weekday: 4 });
+    expect(() => actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09"))).toThrow(/Phone/);
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("addPurchase accepts a day-granular date on an anchored cost", () => {
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 });
+    expect(() => actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09-20"))).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("addPurchase refuses a day-SHAPED but impossible date on an anchored cost", () => {
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 });
+    expect(() => actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09-31"))).toThrow(/Phone/);
+  });
+
+  test("updatePurchase refuses truncating a stored anchored charge's date to the month", () => {
+    // The purchase dialog's "use the month only" toggle resets the NEW-cost
+    // pairing but leaves an already-selected anchored cost selected, so this
+    // is the shape that reached `updatePurchase` from the UI.
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 });
+    const purchase = actions.addPurchase(d, charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09-20"));
+    expect(() => actions.updatePurchase(d, purchase.id, { date: "2026-09" })).toThrow(/Phone/);
+    expect(d.purchases[0]!.date).toBe("2026-09-20");
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("updatePurchase refuses tagging an existing month-only purchase to an anchored cost", () => {
+    const { d, post, cost } = seeded({ kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 });
+    const purchase = actions.addPurchase(d, {
+      ...charge(post.id, cost.id, "2026-09"),
+      source: undefined,
+    });
+    expect(() =>
+      actions.updatePurchase(d, purchase.id, { source: { recurringId: cost.id } }),
+    ).toThrow(/Phone/);
+    expect(d.purchases[0]!.source).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  test("a month-only charge date on a CALENDAR cost is still fine — it settles a slot, it is not an anchor", () => {
+    const d = createSeedDataset("2026-09");
+    const post = d.posts[0]!;
+    const rent = actions.addRecurringCost(d, {
+      name: "Rent", archived: false,
+      amount: { amount: 8000, currency: "DKK" },
+      startDate: "2026-09",
+      recurrence: { kind: "everyNMonths", n: 1 },
+      anchoring: "calendar", splitMode: "percent",
+      splits: [{ postId: post.id, value: 100, absorbsRemainder: true }],
+    });
+    expect(() =>
+      actions.addPurchase(d, {
+        ...charge(post.id, rent.id, "2026-09"),
+        source: { recurringId: rent.id, occurrenceDate: "2026-09" },
+      }),
+    ).not.toThrow();
+    expect(() => occurrencesByMonth(d, "2026-12")).not.toThrow();
+  });
+});
+
 // REVIEW ROUND 1: pre-existing asymmetries with json.ts, confirmed clean
 // against the baseline — neither `requireRecurrence` nor `addRecurringCost`/
 // `updateRecurringCost` validated `recurrence.kind`/`anchoring` against their
diff --git a/src/store/actions.ts b/src/store/actions.ts
index 6926dda..319dc10 100755
--- a/src/store/actions.ts
+++ b/src/store/actions.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 import { newId } from "../domain/seed.ts";
 import { compareMonths, monthOf } from "../domain/months.ts";
 import { toDayOrdinal } from "../domain/days.ts";
+import {
+  chargeDateNeedsDay,
+  isDayGranularDate,
+  startDateNeedsDay,
+} from "../domain/granularity.ts";
 import { roundMoney } from "../domain/money.ts";
 import { currencyUsage, normalizeCurrencyCode } from "../domain/currencies.ts";
 import type {
@@ -204,7 +209,7 @@ export function addPurchase(
   draft: Dataset,
   purchase: Omit<Purchase, "id">,
 ): Purchase {
-  requireSourcePairing(draft, purchase.source);
+  requireSourcePairing(draft, purchase.source, purchase.date);
   const created: Purchase = {
     ...purchase,
     id: newId(),
@@ -234,7 +239,7 @@ export function updatePurchase(
   // one, else the one already stored — so touching an unrelated field still
   // re-validates whatever source is already there, and a `source` this
   // update DOES set is checked against the cost it now names.
-  requireSourcePairing(draft, changes.source ?? purchase.source);
+  requireSourcePairing(draft, changes.source ?? purchase.source, changes.date ?? purchase.date);
   if (changes.total) {
     resolved.total = roundMoneyValue(draft, changes.total);
   }
@@ -398,8 +403,20 @@ function requireRecurringCost(draft: Dataset, id: RecurringCostId): RecurringCos
  * FORBIDS one (an anchored cost has no grid, so a slot id would describe a
  * schedule this app will not compute). `undefined` (no source at all) is
  * always fine and skips this entirely.
+ *
+ * `date` is the purchase's OWN date — the resolved one, so an update that
+ * touches only the date is checked against the source already stored. An
+ * anchored cost's next due date is measured from it (`chargeDateNeedsDay`), so
+ * a month-only date there is not a display preference but a schedule the
+ * anchored walk cannot compute: it would reach `addDays`/`addMonthsToDate`
+ * from the fold and take every money route down. Refuse it here, where the
+ * owner is still looking at the purchase.
  */
-function requireSourcePairing(draft: Dataset, source: Purchase["source"]): void {
+function requireSourcePairing(
+  draft: Dataset,
+  source: Purchase["source"],
+  date: IsoDate,
+): void {
   if (source === undefined) return;
   const cost = requireRecurringCost(draft, source.recurringId);
   if (cost.anchoring === "lastCharge") {
@@ -415,6 +432,26 @@ function requireSourcePairing(draft: Dataset, source: Purchase["source"]): void
         `date (slot) it settles`,
     );
   }
+
+  if (!chargeDateNeedsDay(cost.anchoring)) return;
+  if (!isDayGranularDate(date)) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `"${cost.name}" is anchored to its last charge, so this purchase's own date is what the next ` +
+        `charge is measured from and needs a day ("YYYY-MM-DD"), not "${date}"`,
+    );
+  }
+  // Day-SHAPED is not day-VALID: "2026-09-31" would pass the check above and
+  // then throw out of the fold, exactly the way an impossible `startDate`
+  // would without `requireStartDateGranularity`'s parse below. Same domain
+  // parser, same translation into this file's error style.
+  try {
+    toDayOrdinal(date);
+  } catch (error) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `"${cost.name}" is anchored to its last charge, so this purchase needs a real date, not ` +
+        `"${date}" (${(error as Error).message})`,
+    );
+  }
 }
 
 /**
@@ -466,18 +503,13 @@ function requireRecurrence(recurrence: Recurrence): Recurrence {
   return recurrence;
 }
 
-const DAY_GRANULAR_DATE = /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/;
-
 /**
- * `everyNMonths` walks the cursor through `monthOf` under `calendar`
- * anchoring, so a month-only `startDate` is fine there — rent occurs IN a
- * month. Under `lastCharge` anchoring the SAME kind walks day-precisely
- * (`stepFrom`'s `addMonthsToDate` branch), because the next due date is
- * computed from a real charge date, so it needs a real day to carry forward.
- * `everyNDays` and `everyNWeeks` hand `startDate` straight to `addDays`
- * regardless of anchoring, which throws on a month-only date — so those two
- * kinds always require a day-granular `startDate` here, at the boundary,
- * rather than three months later when a fold walks off the end of it.
+ * Which pairings need a day is `startDateNeedsDay` in
+ * `domain/granularity.ts`, stated once and called from here, from the import
+ * boundary and from both controls that offer these choices — the rule used to
+ * be written out separately in each of those four places. Enforced HERE, at
+ * the boundary, rather than three months later when a fold walks off the end
+ * of a date it cannot step from.
  *
  * Shape alone is not enough: "2026-09-31" is day-SHAPED but calendar-
  * impossible (September has 30 days), and would otherwise reach `addDays` (or
@@ -491,9 +523,8 @@ function requireStartDateGranularity(
   startDate: IsoDate,
   anchoring: Anchoring,
 ): void {
-  const dayGranular = DAY_GRANULAR_DATE.test(startDate);
-  const needsDay = recurrence.kind !== "everyNMonths" || anchoring === "lastCharge";
-  if (needsDay && !dayGranular) {
+  const dayGranular = isDayGranularDate(startDate);
+  if (startDateNeedsDay(recurrence.kind, anchoring) && !dayGranular) {
     throw new Error(
       `A "${recurrence.kind}" recurrence anchored to ${anchoring} needs a day-granular startDate ("YYYY-MM-DD"), not "${startDate}"`,
     );