[moneydance] Envelope Budgeting/Category Balances...

[Chuck]

Like you, I have not played with the new budgeting tools in MD. No offense to Sean, but I've yet to find a checking/finance software package do budgeting the right way (read: as I want it done).

The reason I do an envelope system is so that I can easily track my budget as I go along in the month. I create my budget at the beginning of the month, allocate my envelopes and I'm pretty much done. I can see how much money is left in a category at a very quick glance. Then I don't spend much time other than category corrections inside the month.

As for the spreadsheet it is not something that I created. I pulled it off of the 'It's Youre Money' website at http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/products/envelope-check-register/ and it's a free download. 
 
Chuck

"It is sometimes a mistake to climb;
it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt"

----- 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 1:50:38 PM
Subject: Re: [moneydance] Envelope Budgeting/Category Balances...

-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.





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