Hello again! Two days ago we used some sample budgets to help us brainstorm our own rough draft of spending, saving, and giving. To do that, we worked on adding Envelopes with no amounts. Today, we’ll work on filling out that budget with the amounts we plan to budget.
Today’s Assignment
- Take a look at your budget and review the Envelopes you’ve added so far in your Goodbudget app. Did you think of another category you need? If so, be sure to add an Envelope for it now.
- Now that you’ve added all of the categories you plan to track, it’s time to write in the amount you plan to budget for each Envelope. These might just be guesstimates, and that’s okay. Check out How to Make a Budget (Step 2, Option A shows you how to base your guesses on your past spending). If you feel like it’s been hard to save, now’s the time to set aside money first. By planning ahead and setting aside money for things like repairs, you’ll be prepared to buy those new tires when you need to without using up that extra cash you would have set aside in a Savings Envelope. And if you’re currently living through a financial emergency due to job loss or something else, take a break from 101 and head over to the GB 911: Crash Course instead. There, you’ll see how you can survive, adapt and thrive through your emergency.
- Look at the total of all the Envelopes once you’ve put in these amounts. Is the total amount you’re budgeting equal to or less than your income? If it is, you’re done for now! If it’s more than your income, try adjusting your budget so that you plan to spend less than you earn. Once your budget amount matches your income, you can stop.
- Congrats on finishing a rough draft of your budget! In the comments below, tell us one thing you’ve learned about yourself so far this week.
Note for couples: If you’re having a hard time agreeing on the numbers, take a step back — shut off the computer and put away your phones. Turn off your math mind, and open up your listening ears. Lovingly ask your partner why a certain Envelope is important to them, or ask them what might be on their mind as you try to draft a budget together. Then listen deeply and get curious. And share your own thoughts too. Understanding what’s happening beneath the surface for each person can help you return to the numbers together later with a better sense of what’s important to the two of you, as a team.
And that’s it for this week! Foundation done! Next week, we’ll focus on tracking spending.
Until then, happy budgeting,
-The Goodbudget Team
105 thoughts on “Divide and Conquer”
I’ve learned that budgeting is a good skill to have
I have learned how to better budget my money and make wise decisions on what my money will be spent on.
I learned that many things I buy are very unimportant, and I learned that budgeting is not as hard as I thought.
I’ve learned in order to make big purchasing you have to be good at budgeting
I learned how to budget better and how to use the app to show me how to cut back on certain expenses to stay under my income.
Through this assignment, I have learned to plan and account for the amount I spend versus the amount I save.
I learned that I need to get a job soon so that it creates a steady income for me and I am not relying on my parents, gifts, and chores for my money. Once I get a job, it will be easier to budget because there will be more things that I am able to pay for.
I learned that you spend more on things monthly then I realized.
i learned that i spend less than my income. saving the rest of my money for savings. i learned that having extra money is good just incase you have unexpected things come up that you need to pay for, you don’t have to stress.
I learned how to better manage my money and pay attention to how much money I am spending compared to how much I have coming in.
I learned a lot especially that I could go to my parents for help because they know lots over it. Money that I spend without a second thought can be bad.
What I’ve learned it that if you don’t have a steady income then you need to be even more careful about how you spend money because you don’t know if you’re going to have enough for something you actually need.
I learned that budgeting can be easy if you work on it and at the end you will have a lot more money that you can use for other things that you want instead of not having any money left.
The one thing I have learned about myself is that I have let go of control of the finances and need to gain back that control. This course and app are going to do this
I’ve learnt that I can finally conquer my budget and decrease my debt.
As of now my budget(Just bells ATM) is over my income but once I remove some NONbills(kids college fund) then I can afford at the moment. When my income increases in a couple month due to VA benefits I will add them back in and pay debt down faster.
I can cover all my needs but not my wants — like saving for a vacation or a new computer or furniture.
Gotta work on that!
I learned we I still do not plan well for those annual expense like rabies shots, license plate renewal, income tax accountant payment, etc. Still have to figure out how to budget accordingly so we are not digging into our expense every time a one time payment comes up.
I learned that it’s always better to stick to a budget.
I have been really creative into investing , paying my bills and saving and I am so grateful about it . We all deserve happiness , wealth and prosperity. We must find it within ourselves
Learning how to use the Goodbudget app to assign numbers for income and monthly budget, feel a bit tricky. Still trying and learning.
Learned to be more conscious on what where I spend my funds
I’m learning to budget for the 1st time in my life. I’ve just ordered budgeting envelopes, hoping by seeing my money it will become easier.
Budgeting makes it crystal clear where every cent is going. It’s helps me manage my money more responsibly.
It was good to see how the GoodBudget app confirmed my own budget allocations which I have always done using Google Docs. The experience has increased my desire to explore this app (and other budgeting apps) as viable options from the traditional way in which I have been doing my budgeting. A point of interest was seeing the advantage that the app has over Google Docs: adding up my total expenses so that I did not need to have a separate calculation of the my total expenses after filling in the envelopes.
Reading others’ comments is helpful. I’m hoping this will teach me to live within a budget vice just tracking my expenses. Tracking provides some eye openers on where money is going but doesn’t help save money.
Good to create budget envelopes and start to keep the idea of a budget mainstream. Understanding where the money goes.
I’m having difficulty because I can’t seem to adjust my numbers once I get the actual amount from the current month bill
Real expenses not including impulse purchases or savings for long term annual expenses exceeds income. HALP!!
This week has been good as general learning for me. I am looking forward to refining my budget and really making it work for me. I am in contact with a good friend who is happy to discuss budgeting and ideas to improve.
Creating specific envelopes make me realize how many different expenses we have and why is so easy to loose control of the finances
Budgeting is a life skill
Learned we have more going out then coming in
I’ve found how good it feels good to get a grip on our finances.
I’ve never been a saver. Education system in my country never really taught it. Though it’s ultimately my fault, I know.
Looks so easy setting everything up. Now I just need to make sure I stick to the budget.
Yep another rough one. Also upsetting on how much each month I have just spent on things.
Definitely going to be a work in progress. We spent way more in groceries than I thought
Definitely going to be a work in progress. We spent way more in groceries than I thought. I need to up my side hustle
I realized I am desperately over spending and kidding myself. If I think I can keep living the way I’m living now working a minimum wage job.
I’m finding that I overspend. Cutting things down, it is still tight and I don’t really have much room for emergencies. Arrgh, just forget cost of tax processing…on the other hand I usually end up with a refund that I can put toward paying of my cards.
I know I have a lot more income going out than coming in; however, my income is sporadic, due to investments. As a new home owner, I am learning how expensive owning a home can be.
So by looking at my past spending, I confirmed I definitely overspend on food and coffee. That helps me and my boyfriend allocate certain amounts toward fun money. For instance, I spent nearly $200 within 30 days on coffee. I’m now giving myself $40/month for coffee, so basically a special coffee a week and I bought coffee for home. We spent way too much dining out, so now we’re only going out once a week and our limit is $50/week or $200/mo. We will eat at home the rest of the time. We plan to do income based/every-dollar-counts budgeting – so as far as necessary costs per month, those are 70 percent of our combined income, 7 percent is optional, and leaves 22 percent of the monthly income to pay toward debt. It’s depressing realizing the majority of our income goes to necessaries we can’t cut out, BUT if we get the debt paid off, that number will go down.
I’ve learned that budgeting and discipline is crucial for financial success.
I have put off making a budget because I didn’t know where to begin. I am so glad that I found Goodbudget. I think I will do well with this budget plan.
Learned that I have a lot more subscriptions to streaming apps than I thought and can cancel the ones I don’t use often enough.
I am very happy to have the numbers written down. It feels calm and clear.
I did it with my wife, and we overall were agree on the budget. It came out slightly more then our monthly income so we adjusted it a little bit.
My spouse didn’t want to compromise on her Christmas gifts even though I just paid for her medical bills and bought her a new Iphone. For my Christmas I recieved a handheld vacuum cleaner. Oh well, life is going on. To be fair, she was agreed to cut on her coffee spending and Lyft rides.
I’ve learned budgeting help a lot in everyday spending and helps save money to