July Final Percentages

DannyB

Following up on an earlier post about budgeting by percentages here are my July results for targets & actuals. Both the Target and Actual percentages include money that is contributed to Saving Goals and held aside in our bank accounts for various "roll over" expenses like home maintenance, auto maintenance, various insurance policies paid annually, property taxes, etc. The categories that don't have roll over expenses are Charitable Giving, Quality of Life and Savings.

• Housing
  • Target 13%
  • Actual 12.4%
• Charitable Giving
  • Target 7.5%
  • Actual 7.6%
• Food & Household
  • Target 13%
  • Actual 15%
• Auto & Transport
  • Target 13%
  • Actual 10%
• Quality of Life
  • Target 11.5%
  • Actual 6%
• Miscellaneous
  • Target 15%
  • Actual 14.3%
• Health
  • Target 13.6%
  • Actual 13.4%
• Travel
  • Target 6.8%
  • Actual 8.8
• Savings
  • Target 7%
  • Actual 6%

I included Savings even though it doesn't show up in my Simplifi expense report. Still these are funds I set aside out of my monthly inflow part for grandchildren custodial accounts and part for an ongoing "emergency fund" that my financial advisor insists we maintain. I wonder if I should make these visible in the new Transfers & Credit Card bucket and if I do, will they show up in my Expense report… hmmmm.

Anywhoooo- that's how July stacked up for us. I did have some "Left at end of month" that amounts to 5.4% of our inflow for the month. The Actuals add up to 93.5% of July's income so that comes real close to accounting for 100% at 98.9%. I'm guessing the "missing 1.1% is a miss calculation of just how much went into savings goals and how much I withdrew from SGs for expenses covered by those SGs… if you can follow that.

Flopbot

Cool post @DannyB ! Thanks for sharing your musings. I'm somewhat hesitant to figure out my %'s. Maybe I'd find that that Auto Repairs are up 500% and Dippers are up 20%!

What report best gives you this info? Most easy-ly-est?

DannyB

@Flopbot , I used the Reports > Spending page for with July 1 - July 31 date range. I used the bar chart view as that is an easier presentation of the same data for me to look at.

I had to add in money I contribute to various saving goals minus any funds spent in July from a particular SG to arrive at the correct percentages.

For example, my housing expenses that are tracked in the Spending report amounted to only 9% of my July income. However, I also contribute funds to a saving goal to cover property tax and home maintenance and repairs. I spent some money on home maintenance in July that was excluded from my spending plan since it is covered by funds but does show up in the report for Housing. I did some math to arrive at what I actually spent for Housing and that is the Actual I reported above.

Hope that makes sense.