I am new to Goodbudget. I have all my envelopes created.
I get paid the same amount every two weeks. I need to make two budgets. One that takes everything coming out of the first paycheck. The second, the second paycheck.
It there a way to make 2 different budgets. Money is tight, and if I don’t time things correctly, we overdraw our account.
What I have tried so far, Good budget keeps combining the two paycheck amounts into one lump sum. I tried setting it up as 2 different bank accounts, to take the money from different places, but when I try to fill the envelopes, it is combining the total amount?
Thanks for any help. I’m sure this is me, and my user error. Thanks again! Matt
Hi Matt – I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “Goodbudget keeps combining the two paycheck amounts into one lump sum”. Are you talking about in your Account? in Unallocated? in the actual Income transaction?
Although it’s not possible to have multiple distinct budgets in a single Goodbudget household, one thing you can do in this situation is to set up two Envelope Groups, one for each 2-week budget segment. That way the Envelopes themselves are separated a little.
Next, you’ll create two separate scheduled Income transactions, each recurring every 4 weeks, and each filling a different set of your Envelopes. That’ll allow you to have two “separate” budgets (they’ll still be connected) and view and interact with them separately.
Thank You! That sounds like a way to do it. I’m not sure what I am doing, so I’m sure it is me, and my lack of knowledge of the system. I have been using it for one day. Thanks again! I’ll let ya know if I get it done.
I had another thought—when you say it’s lumping all of your income together, I just want to be sure you’re Scheduling your paychecks and not just post-dating them. If the transaction is in your ledger, even if the date is in the future, Goodbudget will just assume you were paid early. To keep the income from showing up too soon, be sure to click “Schedule this” when you create the deposit and then it will “wait” until that date to post.
I’m not sure if that’s what you’re seeing but I wanted to offer that tidbit just in case.
Sorry that I don’t understand how this works. I set up 2 bank accounts.
I get a paycheck for about 4000$ twice a month.
When I go the fill envelopes , under new income, there is a pull down to select account. But you cannot just have it take money from the account? If I put the $4000 into new income, it adds money in on top of what I put in the bank accounts, making it more than I really have. So I can only put the total monthly into unallocated? Still trying to figure out how to make a budget for 4000$ and all expenses for one paycheck, then a different set of bills for the 2nd paycheck. I did watch the youtube video. They don’t use the accounts, only the unallocated money. So are the bank accounts totally useless? Sorry, help me understand how to get to that money?
The envelopes, including the Unallocated envelope, represent the same money as the accounts but just viewed differently. One (envelopes) is how you intend to spend your money. One (accounts) is where it “lives”. If you look at the total in your Accounts tab (all the money you have on hand) it will match the total remaining in all your created envelopes plus the Unallocated balance, in the Envelopes tab.
When you deposit money to an account on payday, you can either give it a “job” by putting it directly into an envelope, or just let it sit unassigned for later by leaving it in Unallocated.
If you’ve already entered a deposit without giving it “instructions”, then your Fill should be from Unallocated, not from New Income. Fill from New Income just skips a step and lets you deposit AND assign your money as soon as you receive it.