My supermarket here in The Netherlands lets you save as you spend. For every euro I spend I pay another 20 cents in digital ‘stamps’ which I can save and eventually draw back down at an interest rate of 6%.
This means every time I enter the grocery bill into GB it’s not a true reflection of what I actually spent on groceries - 20% went into a sort of savings account.
I’d love some advice on how best to handle this in GB. Should I set up a savings account and transfer into it every time I do groceries? What are the implications for my envelopes?
I thought about this and kept revising my answer. I think what I would do is first create an account for the money you’re saving. When you enter the grocery transaction, enter the full amount as an expense against your regular account which will leave your account down by both the grocery amount and the savings, combined.
Then enter a second transaction for the amount saved as a credit to the grocery envelope and the new savings account.
That will leave your grocery envelope with a true reflection of how much you’ve spent on groceries, your primary account decreased by the amount that was removed from it, and your new savings account with the balance of your transferred euro.
On my example screenshot here, imagine that “Lux Card” is my checking/current account, and “Santander Student Loan” is the new savings account I created for these transactions. If starting with €50, Lux would now have a balance of €25, and Santander a balance of €5. The grocery envelope would have decreased by €25 then increased by €5, so it shows the true grocery spend of €20.
It’s not that different from entering the grocery transaction and a transfer from your primary spending account to a new savings account, but personally I like that it seems easier to interpret.
Does this make sense, and would it work for you?
Thank you so much for taking time to think about this - this solution makes sense and having tried it out on my two recent grocery shops it makes complete sense. Thanks again!
