In a sudden flash of lucidity it all makes sense. I think. Let me pass this by the much wiser folks here and see if I am *finally* getting it.
On my 3rd time through a tutorial tonight it dawned on me that a "bucket" can be thought of as a "register". Think about how you account for a check using a paper register. You start with a balance and enter the check details. When the balance is $0 you are done (or living dangerously). I know this is not shocking, but bear with me a minute. The "standard" thought about entering a transaction in most software is to go to the account register (or ledger) and enter the transaction assigning the transaction to a category (bucket in MoneyWell) in the process. This category is a budget line which you report against as needed. If what I described makes sense and seems right then I think we can say this is why other software didn't work for me. Here is why. In MoneyWell each BUCKET is a register with an available balance. When you need to spend your $$ enter the transaction in the BUCKET register and assign the transaction to the bank account bank account you are withdrawing from. This subtle change of writing a check against the bucket register instead of the account register (with category) alters the entire relationship between your available funds and your expenses. By approaching your buckets like a series of separate registers (think check books) the whole idea of following a budget (spending plan) vanishes and you are simply honoring your account balance. The budget is now the sole point of CONTROL not a point of reference. It can't be ignored. Pick the category first, see what you have available in that category THEN spend your money. So … simple … This may not be the glorious epiphany for you that it was for me. If not then just smile nicely and humor the fool on this side of the connection. He can be slow at times. If by some twist of fate there is another person that "sees the light" based on this … my condolences. You must think like me. I know just how bad that can be. Kevin, you have just changed the way I think about budgeting. I don't know if there was a radical departure from the envelope system somewhere here, but your product certainly shows that you put a large amount of thought into how this should work. For the first time I finally see a way to actually FOLLOW the budget, not just see how far overspent I am. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jaysen --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "No Thirst Software User Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
