Every month my incomes is different. Most expenses are set/static and will stay the the same regardless of income fluctuations, but other expenses will need to be modified every month to work in with the new income amount. What’s the easiest way to set this up? MARK
In this case I would probably use a blend of both “Add” and “Set” instructions in my scheduled Fills. For those expenses that remain consistent I would Set the envelope budget each month to that total, but for the flexible values I would use the Add instruction. Some months you’ll likely have an overage but it will even out in the months with less income.
Alternately, you could use Set across the board with the lowest expected amount in each envelope, but build a Goal envelope as a “holding area” for extra income in the “fat” months. You could use that as a safety net when things are leaner, which might discourage overspending in the envelopes you’ve assigned to Add.
Be sure the transactions in one envelope are all either static or flexible to make this method work best.
Just my 2¢!
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This is why I never use scheduled fills. I always start the budget period (month) with my projected income total for the upcoming month and manually spread it around to my envelopes on day 1.
If you can predict what your income will be for the period, then I recommend front-loading your envelopes. I do this by creating a single Fill from New Income on day 1, “depositing” the full projected income for the month into an account named “Projected Income” and filling all my envelopes until Unallocated is zero. Then as the income arrives throughout the month, I do Account Transfers from Projected Income to Checking.
If you cannot predict your income or the extra accounting process is too confusing, I recommend budgeting based on the lowest income total you would expect and just allocate anything extra if/when you receive it.
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I schedule my fixed expenses and just adjust my envelopes based on due dates.
I use my last income as guide for next pay cycle and adjust as necessary.
For unforeseen expenses, I just set aside in an goal envelope to help cover these expenses.
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I have a baseline salary, but often have some extras added in. I set up my monthly income add based on the baseline salary and my monthly envelop fill based on a general budget - but I also tweak the scheduled monthly fill each month to fit my actual bills (e.g., sometimes utilities are higher than normal), and tweak the income as necessary. This way I’m not starting from scratch each month, and if I don’t get to my tweaking right away there is still a general flow of money there.