[moneydance] Envelope Budgeting/Category Balances...

[Roz Wild]

One thing springs to mind:

The envelope method allows surpluses and deficits to roll over into the next 
month.

So for example, you can allocate £50 per month to car insurance, and then 
pay the bill in full at the end of the year. If you budget for this item 
monthly in MD, it will show you as under budget for 11 months and then way 
over in the 12th month. MD does allow you to set up annual budget items, but 
doesn't stop you budgeting more money than you have over the year. If you 
set up budget items with different recurrences, your monthly budget would 
change each month with MD. Whereas with envelopes you always deal with a set 
monthly amount (if you're paid the same each month, of course), just setting 
aside some for future expenditure.

Equally, if you overspend on Entertainment one month, with envelopes you 
automatically have less money available next month. With MD's system, you 
would have to manually alter the budget amount each month.

I want to try envelope budgeting to get a better handle on budgeting for 
non-monthly items, but I don't fancy entering everything twice - once into 
MD and once into another program (although I wouldn't mind taking a look at 
your spreadsheet, Chuck).

roz
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brett Russ" <bruss at alum.wpi.edu>
To: "General discussion related to Moneydance" 
<moneydance-info at moneydance.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: [moneydance] Envelope Budgeting/Category Balances...


> On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 9:43 AM, Chuck <chuckf410 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> You may not /need/ reports, but they are helpful in creating the budget 
>> for next month. With the reports you can compare the original budget that 
>> you did going into April to what you actually used during the month and 
>> use that info to forecast to some degree your budget for May.
>>
>>  This is why I use a separate spreadsheet for my envelope tracking. I'd 
>> love to do it within MD but there is no easy way that I have found 
>> without sacrificing some other aspect of MD.
>>
>
> Couple things:
>
> -what is the advantage of envelope over MD's budget if, by clicking on
> the budget graph on the home page, I can instantly see what categories
> are over/under budget?  Isn't the end result the same--as soon as I
> enter an expense, it will be instantly reflected in either the
> envelope sub-accounts OR the budget tracker?  I guess I don't see how
> envelope let's you plan ahead any better than the budget does, and
> besides that MD wasn't designed for it and doing it seems to tweak the
> brain.  BTW, I haven't tried MD 2008 yet, but my understanding is that
> budgeting now allows for tracking sub-category expenses in the parent
> budget line item.
>
> -Chuck, it'd be super if you could strip the personal info out of that
> spreadsheet and pass it along as a template for others to use.
> Probably not at the top of your list I'm sure, but I would like to
> experiment a bit with the env. method.
>
> "Sell me on envelope" :-)
> thanks,
> BR
> _______________________________________________
> moneydance-info mailing list
> moneydance-info at moneydance.com
> http://moneydance.com/mailman/listinfo/moneydance-info
>
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG.
> Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.11/1368 - Release Date: 
> 09/04/2008 16:20
>
>