Got envelopes done.
I’m lost on what to do next?
Hi Brenda!
Welcome to Good Budget! There are two next steps; first, if you haven’t already added an Account you’ll want to do that so that you’ll have a pool of money to spend. The other step is to do a Fill in order to allocate that money into the envelopes you’ve budgeted. If you’re doing monthly budgeting this is a good time, because you’ll just add half the month’s budget to this fill to get to the end of the month.
Then you’ll be all set to start adding transactions. Keep asking questions if you get stuck again!
Hope this helps!
Ok feeling real dumb.
How do I fill envelopes?
Ah, sorry, I should have been clearer! On the app, you’ll start a new transaction with the “pencil on paper” icon, and change the type from “Expense” to “Fill from Unallocated”. (The Unallocated money is the money in the account you created, that hasn’t been assigned a “job” yet) You can give it a name if you want, then click on each envelope and enter the instructions for how to fill it. You can even schedule it to recur if that’s helpful. Once you have money in all your envelopes you can save the Fill and you’ll see green bars on your main envelope page indicating how much you have left to spend.
Next time you get money (like on payday) you can either add it all as Unallocated and assign it later, or put it into envelopes right away. That would be the difference between Fill from Unallocated or Add Income>Specify.
If you’re on the web it’s even easier; there’s a Fill Envelopes button in the upper left corner.
Hope that helps!
So if I got paid this past Friday I can start today?
Sure, you can start anytime! You would just want to pro-rate the Fill for this month so it accurately reflects how much you plan to spend (if you’re budgeting monthly). For example, if your grocery budget for a month is $300 you’d set the Budget at $300 but only Fill $136 since that’s all you should have left by now ($300/31 days x 14 days left in the month). Then next month you’ll fill the entire amount on the first (if you have it all; if not, Good Budget can help you build a one-month cushion). Some envelopes are trickier, for example if you have one envelope that includes things like rent and utilities, but by next month it should square itself out.
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