New to the program. I’m setting up my envelopes, accounts, etc. I get paid fourth Wednesday of the month for Social Security and the last business day of the month for my pension. I can’t fund the envelope until I receive the income. Also, some of my envelopes will change during the year. An example are my prescriptions. I’m on Medicare and for part of the year, I’m in Ga, in which I pay 25% cost of certain drugs. I usually go 90 days in ordering drugs, Last month I paid about $1,200 out of pocket. Since I’m not going to see that high of a bill for another 90 days, I’m setting up an envelope for $400 funding for each month. Once I get to a certain amount of drugs paid for the year I go to the catastrophic coverage which goes from 25% to 5% of the cost of medicine. I realize I’ll be able to transfer between envelopes, but is there a way where I can adjust how much to allocate in say the middle of the year and how much to allocate based on current projections.
Please excuse my grammar. I have Parkinson’s living alone in a second-floor apartment and I want to maintain my independence for as long as possible.
Welcome to Goodbudget!
The allocation you mention is termed a “Fill” in Goodbudget. You’ll be able to adjust both your budget and your scheduled envelope fills as often as you’d like. Since you have an idea about when your prescription costs will change, you could (for example) set up two different monthly budget Fills for the first half and second half of the year. You’ll probably want to adjust the budget at the same time as well.
It’s good to remember that the budget (how much you plan to spend per period) and the Fills (how much of the budget you’ve been able to set aside in each envelope) are independent of each other.
Although it’s a little different, we have one set for when our daughter is away at college and one for when she’s home. I just change the date of the next “Home” fill to when she comes home, and then change the “Away” fill to when she goes back. (You can put notes into each scheduled Fill if it’s a helpful reminder for rebalancing your budget)
Your envelopes for your prescriptions ($400/mo) sound like they’re right on track, and when the cost decreases you can use the other Fill instruction to allocate the money elsewhere, then adjust your budget accordingly.
I hope this helps!
One of the hurdles I had to overcome when I started using Goodbudget wad the same as yours. Different calendar days for my SS and in my case my disability. SS pays me and my wife on tye 2nd Wednesday of the month. What I did is set my fill date for the latest possible date of the 2nd Wednsday and then click the “Now” on the date when it actually comes in. This has worked great for me.
Tiffany has really helpped me out over the past, so.pay partivular attention.
The one thing I’d add to the other things that have been said is that, if it suits you better, instead of using a Monthly Envelope and dividing by 3 for your drugs bill, there’s an “Every 3 Months” type of Envelope that might work well for your situation as well!
I have my medication set up for a three-month type of envelope, but during that three-month period I may be ordering a 90-day supply of drug A say in August, drug B may be ordered in September, etcetera. I pay 25% of the cost of the drug while in the gap stage. When I go to the catastrophic phase it drops to 5% of the cost of the drug, then my company has a program where I will be remembered that 5% cost of the drug. I’m hoping to be covered by the VA next year.