Running Account for Personal Allowance
My wife and I keep a running total of individual "fun money" for each of us. We each get a set "allowance" each month, and then also can deposit money for birthdays, etc. We then draw down from that running total when we want to spend money that is for our own "fun" stuff. Is there a way / best practice to track that running total in Simplifi?
Comments
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@Michael Brown, thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!
Other users may come along with guidance for you, but this is how I would personally handle what you described:
- Create a Category for "fun money". You can create separate Categories for you and your wife if you'd like to track your spending separately.
- Go to the Spending Plan > Planned Spending and create a monthly expense for the Category (or Categories, if you created separate ones).
- As you spend money for this purpose, the transactions will be downloaded into Quicken Simplifi (or you can manually enter them); you will want to assign the appropriate "fun money" Category.
- The transactions with the "fun money" Category will tally in the Planned Spending expense, showing you what you've spent so far for the month and what you have left for the month.
Here are some support articles that will help you with these steps:
Let us know how this works for you!
-Coach Natalie
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I have the set up @Coach Natalie outlines above. I have a designated category and a Planned Spending category to capture any spending assigned to our "fun money" category. I have a set monthly allowance that starts fresh each month (no rollover). BUT I also have a, for want of a better term, "Petty Cash" Planned Spending category that has a set monthly amount assigned to it. We make a cash withdrawal and that cash goes in our pockets to be used as desired with no further accounting. We may or may not spend all that cash in a given month and withdrawals are only made when the cash runs out so not necessarily monthly.
As for birthday/holiday gifting, we have a set annual amount set for that that is divided up monthly and I have a "Annual gifting" Planned Spending category with rollover for those funds. A rollover activated category is tricky since QS doesn't provide a means to see any rolled over funds as designated in any of your bank accounts as is done with Savings Goals, so you have to be careful not to spend that money for something else so it's actually in your accounts when needed.
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
The advantage of using the rollover feature for this particular group of expenses is convenience. It's easier to simply categorize a gift expense and have QS deduct that expense form my Planned Spending Gifting category.
The advantage of using a Savings Goal is being able to account for how much of a given real world bank account balance is set aside in the accounts list.
The disadvantage of using rollover in Planned Spending is not being able to see where that rolled over desinated money sits in my actual accounts the way you can with a Savings Goal.
The disadvantage of using a Savings Goal is the additional steps needed to keep track of that spending. I have to mark the expense to be excluded from the Spending Plan and I have to make a Withdrawal from the Savings Goal to make that money available to cover the gifting expense. We have 16 birthdays scattered through the year and then the Holidays and Nana loves to buy holiday gifts!
The Dis
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
@DannyB Thanks for the clear explanation. You make some good points.
I also checked out your older posts in a 2024 discussion. Very helpful.
(https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/8762/accounting-for-rolled-over-planned-spending-cash)
DryHeat
-Quicken (1990-2020)
-Countabout (2021-2024)2
