Confused about Purchasing - help appreciated

I thought I understood this, but a recent game made me wary:

1. I used to pay great attention to when a social project only had one week left to go, and then purchase it. It seemed otherwise I was "wasting" social energy on a project which, say, only needed few credits to complete; my entire turn's social capacity would be spent on that project, with the overflow being wasted. Now not so sure:
Is the overflow then kept in the form of extra cash? That is, if my social project X needs 2 shields left to complete in the next week and I produce 20 shields, will I only spend, say, 12 bc on that project and get my unused social money for that turn? Or will purchasing that last week for 12bc, so that I can use my full social allotment, make my capacity unwasted?

2. Similarly, I am unsure what the purpose of purchasing a ship with 1 week left has: I dont seem to get it any earlier then if I hit "turn", when I get it the following week. When I "buy now", I spend money but I have to wait till next week anyhow. (Thus is purchasing ships with 2+ weeks to go the only meaningful use of that option?)

Can someone explain this, please?

thank you

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Reply #1 Top
Yeah, overflow is lost. Of course, you probably waste more money buying the last bit than you save from unused social production. In some situations you might save a few bc, but it isn't really worth the hassle of checking up on all of your planets to see how long it is to go until the next building is done.

It certainly isn't worth it for ships, as they don't arrive until the next turn anyway, so not only have you spent money on the purchase, but the military production is still wasted anyway!