On Feb 25, 2009, at 8:41 PM, lterenzi wrote: > I know you have said in other posts like your income buckets really > wont match you account balance but let me throw out my story here and > see if i am even making sense. > > So I have been using MW now for a month. I know I am not using it > exactly as it supposed to be used for now... I am kind of establishing > my spending plan and learning as I go. For instance, I didn't plan to > buy MW (and many other things) when I created my plan. I was going to > just try it out. So I bought it and created a bucket for Computer > Software after the fact as i also decided to upgrade to Leopard and to > upgrade my old financial program (iBank) as a fall back. So I assigned > transactions to that bucket and did a manual flow from income to bring > that bucket back to zero because I did indeed use money from my income > buckets to buy the software. > > In fact I would say most of MW transactions outside of bills, gas, > etc. have occurred this way. There is no way I could have foreseen all > the little expenses and things that would pop up so I created buckets > or wedged that transaction into existing buckets. Gift purchases > popped up, other events and etc. etc etc. had us spending WAY outside > our initial "plan." Keep in mind our initial plan really only included > bills, gas, dining out, some entertainment... > > Is that a good way to flesh out your spending plan? If you buy > something or realize you need a new category do you create the bucket, > assign the transaction, do a manual flow and then add it into your > spending plan for future months? > Hi Lenny,
Most people don't know how much they spend so the process of building a spending plan is just that—a process. You may have some history to base your initial planned amount off of and then find that the current spending is different so you adjust your buckets. Add to this, life throws you curves and that means you still have to adjust your plan as you go. It's not a set it and forget it thing. > Because of an unexpected trip our gas and dining buckets got blown way > out of our spending plan. Again, since I used the money from my income > buckets I just did a manual flow to zero them out instead of worrying > that I was negative $200 for dining next month. Yes, I fully > understand that this is not how I need to think about my finances and > I will (I already have actually) but I am more about getting my head > around the concept still and not be fooled into thinking I have more > than I do. > What you do with your spending plan is set planned amounts that total less than your income then spend only what you allocate. If you need more money, move it from one expense bucket to another and adjust your planned amounts if that spending will consistently be different. > Just trying to figure out why I seem to have $1000 more in my income > buckets than I actually have in my account. > > Just when I thought I had it... > > *sigh* If you are tracking all your spending, you shouldn't be off by a penny. The first problem could be that you didn't assign the right amount to your primary income bucket to start your cash flow tracking. If you want me to review your document, please send it to my private address, [email protected]. Peace, Kevin Hoctor [email protected] No Thirst Software LLC http://nothirst.com http://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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
