Hey everyone, I have a bit of a dilemma with my budgeting setup. I’ve been running a zero budget and tracking my spending on a spreadsheet for years, but I can’t seem to find a solution for tracking savings that works. My spreadsheet has a ledger for each account, and every transaction gets recorded and categorized. My main budget sheet uses SUMIF to pull totals from these ledgers, and it’s pretty basic. So, if I want to save $2k this month, I budget it in the savings category. As I save, I mark the transactions, and it reflects in my ‘spent’ column. The challenge comes when I carry over that $2k to the next month. It makes it look like I have $2k more to spend, even though I already allocated it. I then mark that carried-over amount as ‘savings’ again to balance my budget, but this leads to an inaccurate total. If I save $2k in January and carry it over to February, when I mark it as savings again, it looks like I saved $4k instead of just $2k. I need a way to budget for savings without skewing my cash flow in future months. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Have you thought about creating a rollover balance? You could top it up each month with any excess cash. Then, if you spend from your savings, just draw it from that rollover balance. If you move it to a savings account, you could take it from the rollover and add to the savings bucket.
@Wes
I do something similar. Any excess cash is categorized as ‘carry over’ at the beginning of the month and added to my budget. But I also categorize what’s in my savings account as ‘carry over.’ I think that’s causing the confusion because it makes it seem like I saved more than I actually did.
When I tracked like this, I pretended I spent the money I saved. It was like the money was off the books. I’d track my savings in a separate box in my sheet and include it in my net worth, but it didn’t show up in my month-to-month budget. If I wanted to use my savings, I’d debit it from income and credit the savings the same amount. It worked for me for a while.
It feels like you’re double counting the cash. You’re rolling into a new month with excess savings and excess income. You might want to treat those as one. Have you thought about asking for help from a budgeting tool or even AI? It might offer a fresh perspective.
Are you using a double entry bookkeeping style? Like, does your checking account have a credit to savings and your savings account have a debit?
Austin said:
Are you using a double entry bookkeeping style? Like, does your checking account have a credit to savings and your savings account have a debit?
Not exactly. The transfer to savings is the only one labeled as savings for the budget. The balance in savings at the end of the month carries over, and I mark it as savings again to keep it out of available cash. But that makes it seem like I saved it twice.
I moved my savings account off my books. Once I save, it’s treated as spent. I update my savings in a different box in my spreadsheet. If I need to use some savings, I just debit from it without it affecting my monthly totals.
@Milo
That sounds like a good approach. So if I pull from savings, I’d just mark it as a debit, and it wouldn’t affect my overall savings spending?
It seems like treating savings as an expense in your zero budget could help. You could set your budget for the year based on your net income, then factor in fixed costs like savings. Then track your weekly spending without worrying about savings every month.
You might find it easier to use a tool like Fina Money. You can create a separate category for savings that won’t affect your cash flow, helping you get an accurate picture of what you’re saving without mixing it with monthly spending.
I think the carryover concept is a bit confusing. Maybe consider moving your savings to a high-yield account and treat it like it’s off-limits. Start fresh each month, and if you have consistent income, that will make budgeting a lot easier.