This just grinds my gears to no end and even after reading about it why I cannot grasp this. I have a savings account that I do nothing with… it’s just savings. I transfer money from one account (checking) to another account (savings) and great… It’s done right. But oh no not with Goodbudget. No sir. Now I have an unallocated amount that I can’t transfer to anything but an envelope. The amount I transferred from checking to savings is NO LONGER IN CHECKING. Why must I now have to create a second envelope called savings and put it in there when its NO LONGER IN CHECKING. It’s to the point now that i’m either (a) going back to ynab or (b) I just create it as payment transactions to my savings and call it a day.
LOL here I am again!
Your unallocated amount is the aggregate of ALL of your account balances (not including debt or credit cards) minus the amount you have allocated to envelopes. Moving it from Checking to Savings on the Accounts page doesn’t change the total amount of money you have, so it doesn’t change your Unallocated balance.
Those of us who DO track our savings accounts “allocate” that money to Savings, by putting it into an envelope. It’s still mine, I can still spend it, I just choose not to include it in my regular spending money so I’ve “set it aside” in an envelope of money I’ve saved.
If you don’t want it to show up as money you can budget, you just wouldn’t include it in your Goodbudget accounts and instead of doing a transfer, you’d just record an expense that you “paid” to Savings–exactly what you’ve said above. Maybe someday we’ll be able to toggle accounts on or off for budgeting reasons, but for today having a savings envelope that matches my savings account is a nice way for me to look at my actual available funds.
2 Likes
Hi again Tiffany. So I guess I’m staying with Goodbudget. Yaay. I will figure out which way I want to do this but now that I understand its the “aggregate” of all it clicks. Thank you again I appreciate it.
I loooove accounts. Checking, Savings, Wallet Cash, PayPal, Safe Cash… anywhere I have spendable money is an account in GB.
I also have a “Projected Income” account for money I haven’t received yet but want to allocate for the next budget period. I may be the only one who does this.
I also LOVE envelopes. I have dozens. Monthly envelopes for my regular budget period. Annual envelopes for subscriptions and vehicle registrations and birthdays and Christmas and whatnot. Goal envelopes for various big ticket things, emergency funds, etc. I even have one Quarterly envelope for the HOA dues which are billed every three months.