How to best track large one-time expenses?

jcbrady1

I have been using the Spending Plan feature and really love it. However I'm trying to figure out the best way to track large one-time expenses.

I like the Planned Spending feature, however there is one downside which is that it tracks an entire category. As an example, let's say next month I am planning on spending $500 on a hotel for a ski trip that is months away. I want this to be subtracted out of my available funds from the moment the month starts so I can plan accordingly. However, the first week of the month I take a spontaneous trip to see a friend and book a cheap one-night hotel. I don't really consider this part of my Planned Spending; rather, it is something I did spur-of-the-moment and I want it to come out of my regular monthly budget. With the way things work today, however, all hotel costs will be counted against the Planned Spending category so I'll need to adjust the amount.

I was also considering creating a one-time bill but this is a bit clunky to do considering you are currently forced to create a bill series, unless you mark a bill as one-time retroactively (this doesn't really help with planning though).

DannyB

Hi @jcbrady1

Here is how I do this type of planning and perhaps this will give you some ideas.

In the first instance (your planned ski trip)

• Since I know I want to make trips away from home like this I include in my annual budget a certain amount for these trips.
• Next, I create a Savings Goal to hold the funds for these planned trips and set up a monthly contribution to fully fund this Savings Goal by end of year.
• By making a monthly contribution to this travel savings goal I have effectively incorporated my planned travel expenses into my monthly budget for the year.
• The final step is to make sure I actually cover these planned travel expenses with the funds from my travel savings goal. I do this by transferring money to a savings account that is set up exclusively for planned travel expenses. For me this account is at the same back at which I have a credit card and I use this credit card for all my planned travel expenses and pay the balance off with funds in that savings account.
• In Simplifi, I mark any travel expenses to be excluded from the Spending Plan since I have already accounted for them in my monthly savings contributions. I also make a withdrawal from the travel saving goal for the amount of the expenses.

In the second instance - the spontaneous trip to visit a friend, you can either include some extra room in your annual travel budget saving goal or you can cover it out of money you might have in your monthly budget for miscellaneous expenses.