This is probably a dumb question and a dumb explanation as to how I got here but here goes…
First I’ll say that I feel like I’ve reached a milestone in my life. My husband and I actually have a his/mine/ours set up for banking and bill pay. He used to be a truck driver and it was the safest way to bank while he was on the road and we’ve just never changed it. We still do well with savings for each and it works for us so why change? Having said that, the one thing I could never do was to get to a point to where I could fill all my envelopes at the beginning of the month before the bills come in. Now after tons of due diligence, I can do that. I have most of my stuff set-up and ready to go for starting Goodbudget on Nov 1st. Sounds weird but I can’t deal with the middle of the month as a start date. I think this will work best and I will stop using that account on the 25th to make sure everything is paid and cleared at the bank.
Couple of questions:
Do I need to wait until I actually pay the bill to set-up the “schedule this” option?
How does the “reminder work”? Is it an email or is there a calendar to double check?
I haven’t added any account or income so I can do that with a fresh clean beginning balance on the1st, then that’s when I will “fill my envelopes”. When the income starts coming in for next month will the GB auto-fill my envelopes or do I do it manually?
Sorry, all of this seems dumb but I want a clean start.
Sounds like an exciting time!
1–No, when you set up a bill make sure to check “schedule this”. It will ask you for a frequency and schedule the first payment on the date in the initial transaction. Note—if you don’t “schedule this”, it will enter the payment into your ledger right away no matter what date you enter!
2–The reminder just sends you an email I think—the GB admins can confirm this.
3–You can schedule a fill just like a payment, so if you’d like it to fill your envelopes on a schedule it will.
Hope this helps!!
Congrats on building up that one-month cushion so you can fill all your Envelopes at the start of the month! That’s no small feat
Tiffany is right about the reminder email. If you tick the box to receive one, we’ll send you an email a few days prior (or however long you decide) with information about the transaction, so you remember it’s happening. For some folks, they use those emails as reminders to actually pay the bill.
Thanks!! I’m really excited to get all of this entered so now I can go schedule all my bills and be ready for Nov 1st. I actually think I will get to breath again. Thanks for your response ad thanks to the creator of GB!!
I thought of something else to go along with your Fills; when you get paid, add that income to Unallocated. Then at the end of the month, your Unallocated funds will be enough to cover next month’s budget and your Fill should be set as a Fill from Unallocated instead of using Fill from New Income to piecemeal your way through the month. I hope that makes sense!
