I have several monthly envelopes that start on the 1st of each month. For example, one is for groceries and another is for house-related expenses. I then log what I spend in each of those categories throughout that month. But, when the next month arrives, I want everything to reset back to its original amount regardless if I overspent or underspent the prior month. While my envelopes did fill back up again, the issue is that I’m seeing expenses from the prior month affect the next month’s envelope budgets, which I cannot change unless I remove every single expense one by one. How can I just have everything reset for a new month? Meaning, I’d like new envelopes of cash and to not see any expenses yet (since it’s a new month). I’d also like to still see the prior history of expenses from the prior month, but it’s not as critical as having it reset a new month.
Fortunately, this is an easy fix!
When you do an Envelope Fill (and I’m assuming you have one scheduled on the first of each month), simply toggle each envelope to Set the balance to your budgeted amount. That way, whether you over- or underspend in the previous month the envelope will contain exactly that much for the next budget period. Pay close attention to the toggles; the gray button is the one that’s been selected.
If you DON’T want a certain envelope to change, just make sure its instruction is set to “Add $0” and it won’t do anything.
Edited to add: the old transactions will all show up in your ledger, but they won’t affect the new envelope balance unless you add something retroactively.
Hope that helps!
I am having this same issue and I have done what you said Tiffany, but this month when I looked it refilled by envelopes taking into account the over or under from last month. When I click on the scheduled deposit for the previous month it shows ADD but I know for sure I had it on SET and now it won’t let me change it. For this month when I fill my envelopes I can have it on SET but it still adds the months amount with last months over or under.
“Set” is only a convenience for calculating the right amount to add. Once the Fill is saved to your ledger, everything is saved as an “Add”. This is because the ledger is always a cumulative record over time of adding and subtracting amounts. Therefore, looking at a Fill in the history you will only see Adds even if some or all of the envelopes were Sets at the time of the Fill.