Hi! New to Tiller, coming from YNAB. I’m really liking the savings budget, but I’m a bit confused as to how I can actually “spend” my income.
I’ve set the sheet up such that I want my “budgeted” income is less than or equal to (actual income + income savings). But, I’m having a bit trouble understanding how I can “spend” my income.
Let’s say my income is $1000 for this month. So, my income column has $1k in it. Assume that from last month I had $500 unbudgeted - so this month I have $1k + $500 to be budgeted for this month. I’ve budgeted it, everything is good.
Then, when I flip to next month’s budget, I see the $1.5k from last month, that’s been budgeted, but it’s not been “spent”, in Tiller’s vocabulary - so in my “savings” it shows the $1.5k from last month. How do I reset this number to the amount that I’ve budgeted from the month before?
Not sure I entirely understand your question, but there’s a savings/budget toggle in the upper right of the savings budget. If you toggle that to savings, then you can adjust the savings. Nothing needs to balance in the savings budget, so you can +/- as you wish from either savings or budget. Hope that helps.
I want the stuff in the red circle to become 0, because I’ve already budgeted (and probably spent) this money. Instead, the only way I can see to set this number to 0 is to manually create a transaction at the end of the month with category “dunder mifflin paper co” and subtract out the amount that I’ve budgeted. This isn’t really a viable option for me, because in reality I have several income sources with all sorts of varying levels of income.
So, I’m looking for a way for the “savings” number in August to be adjusted based on how much I budgeted in July .
I really appreciate your answers! I was hoping there would be an automatic way to do what you are describing, but your answer is telling me that there isn’t. Thank you!
I noticed in your screenshot that the “Adjust±Modifies” green dropdown value is still set to “Budget.” Be sure that it is set to “Savings.” When that value is “Budget” and you run the “update savings budget” in the extension, it not only adjusts your current month of the budget (on the Categories sheet) but also all future months in the year. When you change the dropdown to Savings, it’ll only adjust the month you have selected in the dropdown. I mocked up a scenario (press the black diamond to unfold)
Screenshot of June showing $500 available from paycheck
Screenshot of Budget Journal sheet, recording the adjustments. Note that the Type column indicates we used the Savings method rather than updating the Budget.
Hi there -
I am a former MVELOPES user and can’t function if my cash-on-hand does not exactly equal the sum-of-envelopes. The “Savings Budget” sheet works perfectly for this.
If you just want your SAVING column to be ZERO, then use the “ADJUST +/-” Column I, take out the $1500, and then put “Savings” in Cell I4 before running the update.
My real question is — if you already spent it, why don’t you move the $1500 out of income and into those expense lines?
I’ve never used a envelope budgeting tool before but am interested in understanding your automation question. How would a tool decide what to do with an underbudgeted or overspent amount going into the next month? It sounds like YNAB provided this automation?
I experience the same type of issue with my regular, non envelope, budget each month. I have to decide which category to spend less in or add extra funds too. My manual method is to track these categories over time as some balance out and others need to be recalibrated. I also had a surplus of funds that I had allocated for the yearly budget but didn’t need based on my monthly spend estimates. I put the extra funding into a Savings Buffer category until needed.
Hopefully, over time, I will get better at estimate my budget. This is my first year with a personal budget. It has been like trying to nail Jell-o to a wall. Companies keep raising the prices and unplanned expenses come up.
Are you giving your income categories a budget value in the Categories tab? It sounds like all your Expense categories add up to that $1500 number for July, but if you don’t also budget $1500 for your July income then it will roll over month to month as if you haven’t used it.
I think I see the disconnect. In a zero-based budget, you can only budget money that’s in your account. So, I don’t “budget for my income”, I say “okay, my last paycheck was $1000, so I budget $1000.”
When I budget $500, there is $500 left to budget.
This is the functionality I’m looking for. I currently have $1500 from dunder mifflin that is unbudgeted, and I want to make sure I’m not budgeting more than that. And as of now, I have received $0 in August 2024, so I should not see any money in my “income” section for August 2024.
If you’re having trouble structuring a budget, I would strongly recommend “you need a budget” by the YNAB founder. While the book is also an advertisement for their product, it was an excellent way to help structure a budget.
Thanks Community for all your input and questions. Amongst the many things I learned here I didn’t know there was a book called “You Need a Budget”! How interesting. Great share @gtf8 .
