The balance in my envelopes is exactly 30.00 less than my checking account.
My credit card balance is 30.00
so the envelope balance + credit card = checking account balance.
But there is no visual in my envelopes telling me I need to put aside the 30.00 like in the other apps I mentioned.
There is no problem with GB, as everything adds up,
I cannot move money from another envelope as this would be double counting.
Itâs not double counting though if you do an envelope transfer. That $30 has been spent, whether it was spent with cash (gone already) or spent on the Apple Card (gone on the 31st). Moving it from the Grocery envelope to the Apple envelope shows you have $30 less available for groceries and $30 set aside to pay off Apple. That money is in your possession/in your envelopes until you pay the bill, but moving it to the Apple envelope sets it aside for later.
If you donât go over budget, you donât need to do transfers at all because the money will be in your checking account when you need it, but if you need to see visually how much you owe Apple, and if you donât have an Apple Account set up, youâll need to do it as an envelope.
Do you have BOTH an Apple Card Account AND and Apple Card Envelope? Because you have to choose one or the other. If youâre trying to have both then you ARE double counting. I would delete the Apple Card account and ONLY use an Apple envelope.
That explains the double counting.
I have both credit card account and envelope.
The 30.00 as already been deducted from my groceries when I used the credit card account.
Iâm on a trial for the GB pro, maybe I just need to go back to the free one.
It may be easier for you that way. If youâre not using the Credit Card Account function as described above, and are INSTEAD using an Envelope to track your credit card spending, then you donât need to have it recorded in two places.
I use Credit Card accounts/Paid Off Monthly for all my regular cards (where I can quickly see how much of my budget was spent on my cards), a Debt Account for my car payment, and no Account but instead a regular envelope for another small loan from a family member that just gets a set payment each month (since the payment doesnât change and paying the loan down isnât a goal). That works for me, but if you donât like looking in the Accounts tab for your Credit Card balance then the basic version is probably fine.
I track 28 Envelopes and 24 Accounts so I canât imagine ever going back to the Basic version! 
I will give it a try, I have 23 days left to think about it.
I wish it was cheaper, but I can see why it works for you.
I only left YNAB because of their outrageously increase in price.
@Rocket - I am a former YNAB user as well, and was not satisfied with the way they were misaligning income and expense. You can add your bills to eternity, but only your current paycheck.
I tried a few other apps that do what you want it to do - having that âholdâ piece in between. Bring in data volatility and that was the end of those (old transactions disappearing, leaving your envelopes with money they didnât really have). I have not had that issue with GB. If you spread the annual price by month, you will realize it might be worth the amount to keep your money in line.
Brief history: Separation left me with 100% of the bills on â
of the income. Was short a few hundred every month. If it hadnât been for GB (my excellent credit helped, too), I would probably be dead or living under a bridge. Instead I am doing well on my own with my 42 accounts and 71 envelopes.
Wow! Thats a lot of accounts. No way would the free version work for you.
Thanks for sharing your info. I am leaning more towards keeping the paid version.
Definably better paying yearly over monthly, wish it did not matter.
I was forced into early retirement do to covid, bunch of us were let go because of it.
Would of liked to of worked at least two more years.
I used to work in IT and there was nothing else available near me.
Iâm also from YNAB. GBâs way of handling credit cards is perfectly fine and will do what you want if you just do it the GB way and donât try to shoehorn YNAB into it.
When you make a credit card purchase, the amount gets taken from the appropriate envelope. When itâs time to pay the credit card, just pay the credit card, donât overthink it.
In YNAB an intermediate envelope is used to hold the funds before you pay the credit card. In GB the negative amount in the credit card itself is what offsets the amount in your cash accounts and effectively reserves the money for payment. If you try to setup an intermediate envelope in GB, YNAB style, you just end up double counting.
Thanks, you made me laugh with âshoehornâ YNAB into it.
I agree, I was still thinking in YNAB logic when I posted this.
Iâm starting to like GB better now than YNAB.
Regards,
Frank
I tried just using the envelope, the way you described it and it works fine.
I reverted to basic, and trying to decide on GB or YNAB.
GB seems cleaner, YNAB has more features.
Where are you located, may I ask? Reason I ask, is the company I work for is looking for good people, incl. IT.
Iâm just outside of Utica, NY.