I have a quarterly expense (school fees) , I pay half, and my ex pays half of into my account. I then pay the full amount to the school. It’s not income (or is it?) as I didn’t earn it. How do I deal with it in Goodbudget? I’ve been using a ‘school fees’ envelope, but that’s only for my half of the fees. If I put the full amount it, ie use that envelope to record the deposited amount, it is double the budgeted amount and doesn’t work. Help?
That’s a great question! I would recommend setting that Envelope’s budgeted amount to match what you pay in full. When your ex pays you their half, you can add that to that Fees Envelope as a credit (not as an income). That way, you’ll have the full amount set aside in that Envelope, and you’ll be able to add a transaction into Goodbudget that matches what you paid. Hope that helps!
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From Goodbudget’s perspective, any money that comes into your accounts is income regardless of the source. Depending on your reasons for using GB, you could handle this transaction in any one of several ways. If you’re working to align your “real income” with expenses, then I would keep the existing envelopes as you have them, which will calculate the amount you need to have saved when that bill comes due. When you get the money from your ex, either put it in a different envelope (to keep your personal budgeting straight) or add it to the School envelope, doubling the balance but draining it again as soon as the bill is paid.
Which one works better for you will depend on whether you already have Add/Fills set up for your portion and whether having the extra money in the same envelope in GB would be confusing.
At the end of the day you’ll want to budget the entire bill AND count the income you receive from your ex to help pay it. You might try using Goal envelopes and/or due dates to help keep it sorted.
Edit—Karisa and I were working at the same time 
I like her idea of recording that income as credit for clarity. The end result is essentially the same but if you’re doing future budgeting based on past trends, the credit will be cleaner.
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Fantastic! I didn’t know about entering a credit (by entering a negative amount), not income. Has worked a treat! Thanks.
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