Hi, I have different budget (not only the amount in each envelope, but probably will have to adjust the number of the envelope itself) for different month. Is it possible to incorporate that into Goodbudget? Or it must be the same number of envelope for every month?
New user here, so please enlighten me
You can add and delete envelopes without affecting the transactions inside, but it sounds as if it would be easier to have all your envelopes created and just use different Fills that include that months’ priorities. (You can save these as Quick Fills or just post-date them way into the future to make them accessible)
For example, when our daughter was away at college we provided spending money, so the Fills in those months included those transactions. When she was home though, we provided everything so we had “Home” fills with no spending money allocated but with extra grocery dollars.
It’s ok to leave envelopes empty in the months they’re not being used, but another option is to add annual or quarterly envelopes to manage less frequent but predictable expenses.
Depending on your need for additional envelopes at certain times, one of these two solutions might help.
Thanks Tiffany, appreciate your help!
Another thing I want to clarify is, I already set the monthly budget starts on 25th every month. So for the case mentioned above, if I need to adjust the amount of each envelope, when would be the right time to do it? 24th? 25th? or whenever I want but just before Income is added?
You can really change things any time, but of course changing the budgeted amount means you’ll have to adjust the amount you Fill also. The big difference is that each Fill will follow all the individual envelope instructions, so if you have a big “beginning of the month” Fill with lots of Set instructions then you’ll want to change the budget before that happens, as it won’t adjust retroactively. Alternatively, if all your envelopes are toggled to Add then it doesn’t really matter at all, or if you do a Fill with each income instead of aligned with your budget period then the dates aren’t as important either.
Is that aligned with what you’re asking?