Great job creating that budget rough draft last week! Planning before you spend money is the best way to make sure there’s money set aside for necessities and savings, while still giving yourself room for other things, like fun and generosity.
This week we’ll walk through adding money to our Envelopes and tracking our expenses. Later on, we’ll spend some time reflecting on how things went. Let’s get started!
Today’s Assignment
- To get started, we recommend setting up a few more things in Goodbudget. First, add the Account you plan to track — we recommend adding your primary checking account so you can budget with money you currently have. This video also shows you how to create Debt Accounts that can be attachedto the payment Envelopes you made last week. Next, add your income.
- Start filling your Envelopes. When you fill your Envelopes, you’re setting aside the money you need for the items you plan to spend on or save for. That way, as you go throughout the month, you’ll be able to buy groceries as needed without having to worry about dipping into your Rent or Savings Envelopes. It also means that when the car breaks down, which it will, it’ll be no more than a minor inconvenience because you’ll have already saved up for car repairs. How great is that?!
- Now that you’ve filled your Envelopes, spend some time reflecting on when you’ll pause before spending. In what situations might you want to pause for 24 hours before you spend? What’s the dollar amount for those kinds of transactions? In what situations would you check in with your partner before spending?
- Did you notice anything surprising when you reflected on the above? Comment below and let us know.
Note for couples: Decide together about when to check in with each other before spending. A lot of couples like to choose an amount that’s okay to spend in one shot. Then, before any single expense that’s higher than that amount, they check with each other first. This gives each of you freedom to do what you need to do, while also making sure you’re on the same page about the big stuff. And of course, you’ll still be able to see everybody’s spending after the fact since Goodbudget stays up to date between your phones and makes it easy to share.
That’s all for today! Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to become more aware of our spending. See ya then.
Happy budgeting,
-The Goodbudget Team
28 thoughts on “Set Aside What You Need”
I think I like to sleep on most spending decisions, even minor ones. If I wake up the next morning and still want the thing, I figure it’s not just a passing thought.
I like the idea of pausing before making a purchase. Coming from the holidays we probably made a ton of impulse purchases, some needed some not so much so this will be a great time for us to even begin planning for such things as next Christmas and vacations.
I like that the course shows that it’s important to pause before making a big decision. In my experience, I take a lot longer than 24 hours to think about the big expenses – in fact, I usually think about big expenses several times over several days or even months. That helps me to know that the big purchase is something either very necessary or something I really want.
I am very afraid of the Auto-fill feature so I manually fill my envelopes.
I wish there was a chance to review the auto fill, adjust the numbers, or undo the fill. To understand or control the decision more.
Hi Michaelette,
You can definitely edit and adjust your automatic Fills. Any automatic Fills will appear at the top of your transactions list as [Pending], where you can click on them again to view their pending changes as well as make edits and adjustments. You can also undo posted automatic Fills by deleting them, or remove them from being automatic by deleting the [Pending] line.
Hope that helps!
We will discuss every purchase right now until we have everything under control. Then we will reevaluate the situation.
Regarding this text:
Today’s Assignment
To get started, we recommend setting up a few more things in Goodbudget. First, add the Account you plan to track
The link to Add the Account is broken. I got a 404 Error message.
Thank you for this. I am slowly working on it. I did put amounts into each envelope and label the envelopes so far. I did it over two days and it was good.
I’d like to pause on purchases at 200 or more… Sometimes it takes a day sometimes it not so important anymore
Looks good on paper but the first month did do so well
I realized that I have not practiced pausing before spending. That was new to me and is something I will begun to practice.
With everything going on I like to do a pause on any purchase over $50 if not a right now necessity! My husband on the other hand researches everything however he had expensive taste ugh it’sa ongoing struggle between us
Pause before spending is great thing because, I will ask myself, is this a want or need before I buy.
I love the pause before spending deal because it makes me question wether I NEED it or WANT it.
I like to really sit down and think about big spending decisions and make a pros and cons sheet of the purchase
I think you should pause before spending when you are making big or life changing purchases.
I noticed that I just jump into purchases if I know I have enough money and I need to start thinking about purchases.
I definitely pause before major purchases. We needed a new car a few months ago and I spent almost 2 weeks researching the right purchase. It was not a pause to decide to spend just one to decide how best to spend as a vehicle is a need where we live. We do not really make unnecessary large purchases, not enough money. I do no not pause before buying the kids shoes, groceries or gas I just make sure there is enough for the purchase.
I should definitely pause before making a purchase especially when it comes to buying snacks instead of cooking. And my biggest problem is I need to prioritize things on which I spend my money. I’m learning slowly but steadily and I am confident that soon enough I will be able to track my expenses and stick to my budget..
Great to get practice to use the app!:)
In filling my envelopes, I was pleased to see that I was pretty accurate overall. My biggest issue is that I am quick to buy on Amazon. I am definitely going to develop the habit of waiting at least 24 hours before actually buying. So often my purchases are impulse buys that I like, but don’t really need.
We have SS Checks (two of them) that come at different times during the month. 2nd Wednesday and 4th Wednesday. How do we schedule and budget (fill envelopes) by these parameters?
I pause and wait before most unplanned purchases over 50, but the hardest ones to pause on are snack attacks!! I have plenty of food at home but then when I’m in the car running errands or on lunch break or driving home from work…it’s hard not to stop for a snack/coffee etc…something to think about!
I like the idea of pausing before a purchase of 50.00. Need to think if purchase is really needed.
I can’t link to my accounts so this is a bit daunting. Do I need to self enter each transaction from my bank account to be able to track it?
Pause before spending is a good idea. I do it for the Company I work for, so why not do it for myself? This mindset will really help me evaluate what I’m spending on and probably realise what is less necessary.
Something I have not done before … pause before spending.. something I’m going to try very hard to do from now on, I do way too many impulse buys
My biggest takeaways that I learned the website is much more effective at doing things you need to do than the app is