I think the problem I was having was with setting up the accounts for the first time.
I had a starting balance in my credit card of -$100. I had already done my cash flow, which means the starting balance of my checking account was in my Salary bucket. $400. I made a credit card payment and my salary bucket did not go down. If I had made the credit card payment (transfer) and then did my first cash flow, the salary bucket would have had the correct amount. I have a credit card that I use for all my day to day purchases, I then pay off that credit card every month. All these day to day charges will be put into my different buckets. When I make my credit card payment, I'll need to transfer the money, because the money has already been taken out of a bucket. Example: $500 Checking Account $000 Credit Card Account _________________ $500 Total Real Money -buckets- $300 Income: salary $100 groceries $100 Debt Repayment __________________ $500 Total Bucket Allocation I spend $100 with my Credit Card and place it in the groceries bucket. Example: $500 Checking Account -$100 Credit Card Account _________________ $400 Total Real Money -buckets- $300 Income: salary $000 groceries $100 Debt Repayment __________________ $400 Total Bucket Allocation When it's time for me to pay off my credit card, I need to make a transfer that does not affect any of my buckets. Example: $400 Checking Account $000 Credit Card Account _________________ $400 Total Real Money -buckets- $300 Income: salary $000 groceries $100 Debt Repayment __________________ $400 Total Bucket Allocation This is different than repaying my debt because I already took the amount out of the groceries bucket. Here is what happens if enter a single transaction from the Debt Repayment bucket and do not transfer Example: $500 Checking Account -$000 Credit Card Account _________________ $500 Total Real Money -buckets- $300 Income: salary $000 groceries $000 Debt Repayment __________________ $300 Total Bucket Allocation I now think I have more money than I do. I think you always need to transfer when making a payment to a credit card from a bucket. On Jan 1, 3:02 pm, Karen <[email protected]> wrote: > Spiral, maybe I'm not understanding your predicament but I think you > might be making it more complicated for yourself. i.e. Every month the > bank credits me with my salary. That goes into the income bucket. When > I pay a credit card payment, I don't use transfers, (but then again, I > don't download credit card statements as I'm trying to pay them off). > When I make a cc payment, I'm in my regular checking account. When I > have the bank download for that account, and find a cc payment, I make > the Payee the credit card name, the type is "withdrawal," the bucket > is "Debt Repayment" and then a Memo if I use it for that account. That > amount comes out of what I have budgeted for debt repayment, out of > that bucket and its total goes down. Perhaps if you try using > Transactions rather than transfers/dragging, it'll make more sense. > I'm not planning to use the transfer ability until I have a better > handle on the basics. I hope I'm making sense. > > Karen > On 1-Jan-09, at 5:10 PM, SpiralOcean wrote: > > > > > Checking $400 > > Credit Card -$100 > > Salary $200 > > > So you are saying, > > to pay off a balance on a credit card: > > Create a transfer from checking to credit card (I dragged checking to > > credit card). > > Checking $300 > > Credit Card $0 > > Salary $200 > > > Go to the Checking Account, look for the transfer, drag it to a bucket > > called Credit Card Balance Payment. > > Checking $300 > > Credit Card $0 > > Salary $200 > > Credit Card Balance Payment Bucket $-100 > > > Go to the Salary income, drag it to the Credit Card Balance Payment to > > pay out of my salary so that the Credit Card balance Payment has a $0 > > balance. > > Checking $300 > > Credit Card $0 > > Salary $100 > > Credit Card Balance Payment Bucket $0 > > > This gave me the correct amount. > > > There are a lot of steps there, and it concerns me that I may forget > > to do something and not know that I have less money in my checking > > account than I thought I did. > > > If transfers should always be flowed from the outgoing payment, a > > suggestion is to show the outgoing transfer as 1 transaction in the > > Unassigned smart bucket. This would help me remember that I need to > > do something with that transfer, otherwise my money may be off. > > > Thank you for the assistance. > > > On Jan 1, 12:06 pm, Kevin Hoctor <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Jan 1, 2009, at 12:26 PM, SpiralOcean wrote: > > >>> Just set up new accounts today. A checking and a credit card. > > >>> I put in an initial balance in the checking and credit card. For > >>> example purpose: > >>> Checking $400 > >>> Credit Card $100 > > >>> I took my initial starting balance in my checking account and placed > >>> it into the income bucket of salary. > >>> Salary $400 > > >>> I created buckets, assigned monthly allocations, and flowed the > >>> cash. > >>> The amount of money in the Salary bucket went down as expected: > >>> Salary $200. > > >>> Checking $400 > >>> Credit Card $100 > >>> Salary $200 > > >>> I paid off my credit card by dragging from my checking into the > >>> credit > >>> card: > > >>> Checking $300 > >>> Credit Card $100 > >>> Salary $200 > > >>> This is a bit scary to me because my Salary staid the same. But I > >>> should have $100 left to allocate in the Salary? > > >>> I went to the transfer smart bucket, and dragged that transfer to my > >>> salary bucket and the salary bucket went down by $100. But only > >>> if I > >>> dragged the transfer from my checking account. If I dragged the > >>> transfer from my credit card account then my salary went up $100. > > >>> This is scary to me because I don't feel I can trust how much > >>> money is > >>> in the salary bucket to allocate? > > >>> Is there something I did wrong here? > > >> If you have a balance on your credit card that you are paying off, > >> you > >> should use a bucket like "Debt Repayment" and flow your outgoing > >> payment (transfer) through that. This way you'll have to flow money > >> from your Salary bucket to that expense bucket. > > >> If you purchase something on the credit card and that purchase gets > >> assigned to a bucket and you have filled that bucket with money from > >> the Salary bucket, then your payment (transfer) doesn't need to be > >> assigned to any outgoing bucket because you are just moving money > >> from > >> one account to another and the categorizing of that payment was done > >> with the purchase. > > >> So in summary: > >> 1. Payments on credit cards for existing balances need to be > >> assigned to an expense bucket because they are not for a current > >> purchase, whereas… > > >> 2. Payments on credit cards for current purchases do not need a > >> bucket assignment because the purchase is tracking the cash flow. > > >> Peace, > > >> Kevin Hoctor > >> [email protected] > >> No Thirst Software LLChttp://nothirst.comhttp:// > >> kevinhoctor.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
