Hi. I am relatively new to Goodbudget. I was previously using an Excel sheet and would take out the bills that were due within the two weeks after a pay day. For instance, If I was paid on the 5th and I had a bill on the 12th, I would budget for the full bill. I’m trying to become better prepared rather than being paycheck to paycheck and am trying to take out a little for each bill per pay period. However, since I am paid bi-weekly, that means the day between my pay day and the bill being due is almost always shifting. I noticed the black line or tick marks on my envelopes but can’t seem to find where it says how much it is at that line. Is there a way to see that better? Am I doing this wrong?
I apologize if this comes off confusing. I just want something to tell me “Hey you have a $100 bill due on the 20th and since you were paid on the 5th but will be paid again on the 19th, you should put $93.75 in the envelope today. Then on the 19th, put in the remaining $6.25” Is that something this app can do?
Hi! I think your core question is – how much should I fill today vs later, given the due dates on my bills? Add due dates to your bills, and that will both remind you when they’re due as well as show you info about how much you’ve filled so far so that you can decide how much you want to fill when you get the next paycheck. Here’s more detail about how that works, including screenshots:
Here’s how I handle bi-weekly income. I look at any monthly budget as a yearly budget. For example, if I have a $2000 payment bi-weekly, it means I get $52,000 per year ($2,000 x 26 paychecks per year). Divide that by 12, and I receive an “average” of $4,333.33 per month. For 10 of the 12 months, you only receive $4,000, but for 2 months, you receive a “3rd” paycheck, meaning you get $6,000. This confuses most programs (and users). It’s always a question. So, of course during the year there are times when it looks like I’m negative in an envelope, but the 2 months where you get 3 paychecks brings it back up. Over the course of the year, it averages out. I’ve only seen one budget program in my life that ever looked at it this way.
We also receive 2 “monthly” Social Security payments. I handle them the same way.
I created a relatively simple spreadsheet that basically takes all of my yearly income, divides it by 12, and tells me what “average” amount I need to budget in each envelope from each payment source each time the payment comes. If a monthly envelope goes up (like YouTube TV just went up $9.99/month), I just change that to the new amount in the spreadsheet, which automatically shows me I need to reduce my budget from somewhere else. You change the spreadsheet, then the amount in the “Add/Edit” section in GB. Since GB will let you save a “Fill”, you just adjust that fill to match.
So I have a “fill” for my primary retirement bi-weekly payment, and our Social Security payments. Since my bi-weekly payment comes regularly, I can easily adjust the “Fill”. Not so much with the Social Security payments as they come at weird times each month so it is a little more of a pain to adjust. (However this could be easily changed by the awesome GB folks)
