Hi @Ngb12347! Some good questions here. I’ll address them individually, but really the best option is to do what makes sense for you. All of my answers will address how I would do things, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way!
I do feel like you are making things a little bit difficult for yourself with your zero-based budget. For the Savings Budget to work correctly it is important for your Income and Expense Budget to be equal, but I’m not sure how you can carry any Savings and also include that in the zero-budget calculation. I understand that cash flow is the metric you’ve decided to prioritize, but it seems like it would really complicate things…
Scenario 1
That’s exactly what I would do.
Scenario 2
That’s also basically what I do. I don’t always wait for the end of the year to clean things up, however. Lets say I had a couple of months where gas was way more expensive than usual (just hypothetically, of course…), I’d rather do a small transfer to take care of that rather than stay in the red the rest of the year. For me, if the Savings get too far off if this kind of category it stops being useful because I can’t conceptualize how things are trending as easily.
Scenario 3
I used to do the same thing as you, but now I try to avoid adjusting the budget for things like this. For me, the budget is what I predicted would happen this month. If unexpected expenses or income come our way, then I don’t want to retroactively change the budget so that it looked like I was expecting it. In your example (5k lottery win), I would categorize it as income but not budget for it. Once it rolls over to the next month, if I decide I want to move it to a different category I can use the savings adjustment to do so. I have something a little bit like your Slush Fund category mentioned in Scenario 5, which I have confusingly called my “Savings” category.
Scenario 4
I would go with scenario 4b. At least, it’s what makes sense to me.
Scenario 5
Like i mentioned above, I do have a category that does what you’re describing here. One thing to note, though, is that you will drive yourself crazy if you try to get your Available to match your savings account balance exactly. With all of the different dates on transactions and when things are updated in Tiller, it will never match perfectly. I’m ok with that, though, as long as it’s close. As much as I would prefer exact numbers, it’s helpful for me to remember that the budget is just a tool. For me, it serves its purpose by giving me control and visibility over how much I am spending. If my savings account is $100 off from my Available number at the end of the month, ultimately that does not actually affect how I use the tool. The only time it would matter is if I were worried about not having enough cash in my account, but I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where that’s not a concern. I did put together a spreadsheet to compare my bank account to the available amount though, it’s pretty computationally intensive but it can show whether they are tracking more or less the same. You can check it out here if you’re interested: Comparing Savings Budget to Account Balances . I’m not sure how well I explained it though, so if you have any questions about it feel free to ask them on that post.