All of A Sudden Amounts Are in the Red
Morning all,
Signed on to check that a that a couple of things had posted and noticed that I have some red in my budget. Can not figure out where it came from or how to get rid of it. The amount on my checking, prepaid credit card match with the register. The only funds I have that could cover the overage are on dedicated "gift cards" and not "Real".
Here is a screenshot to give you all an idea of what I am dealing with. I am sure there is an easy solution that I am overlooking.
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The header says that you have $996.10 budgeted in April but only have $994.85 funds for April.
Funds for month is a combination of any money budgeted in the future from a previous month, any income not budgeted in a previous month, and any income received in the current month. So effectively you do not have enough money to budget $996.10 in April.
No March overspending, so that's good, but if you sent any of that money to the future you should check March for any over budgeting (not overspending) since that would have lowered the BIF in March by the amount of the over budgeting.
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I finished March with $2.38 BIF, not sure where that was at. Will start looking for it.
Would overbudgeting be my cell phone is 49.85 but I budgeted $52.50? My cell phone is on a true 30 day billing cycle, I figured out if I put in an extra, $2.35 a month, by the time every 4 years that the month with 2 billing cycles rolls around I will have built up enough for the bill.
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Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) What I mean by over budgeting is that you budgeted more in a month than you actually had. April is over budgeted right now, but that could also be a result of over budgeting at some point in the past.
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briefcase If I am reading March correctly it balanced. I know that February ended in the red due to an unauthorized charge that resulted in me being overdrawn.
The strange thing is my accounts balance as do all my other categories. So I am not sure how I over spent.Reply -
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) It looks like you overspent in Groceries, but overbudgeting means you budgeted more than you had in your account. For instance, if you have $100 in your Checking account but you budget $105 towards Transportation, you're overbudget by $5 because that $5 doesn't exist in your account to budget.
There was $1.25 put towards one of your categories (or a combination of categories) that doesn't exist in your accounts. You'll need to remove that $1.25 from your categories to fix the overbudgeting.
To fix the overspending (in the Grocery category), you'd need to move funds from another category. I know you mentioned you only have Available funds on gift cards - how are you tracking those gifts cards? Could there have been a mistake with your gift card accounts that caused that overspending?
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Okay I found the $4.98, I did an adjustment to a card that is used strictly for groceries all I can see is the balance, it is locking up on the transactions, so I put todays balance $1.00, the account thinks there is $5.98, YNAB asked if I wanted to make adjustment I said yes and assigned the grocery category to it.
Faness 3 Gift Card Accounts, Amazon, Regal and Microsoft, they are in the budget under the Makes Life Worth Living along with Books, Games, Dining Out, Spending Money. The cards are used for fun things, the only exception is my subscription to Kindle Unlimited comes out of my Amazon GC.
Current Balances
WF Checking $0.58
Bluebird $2.28
Amazon $1.70
Microsoft $1.07
Regal $1.70
Those balances match in the register and on the various websites. I hate lying but with a toothache and meds, I have tried going line by line through this month, it took me 4 hours to realize that the $4.98 was the balance adjustment. Do I just need to create a couple of deposits that clears the red and brings things into line?
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Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) personally I have never tracked gift cards in YNAB and can't recommend doing so. To me, the great thing about gift cards is that they don't need to be tracked. When we use a gift card, we only log what we actually spend in cash and effectively treat the gift card like a coupon. I've found that approach keeps things very simple and understandable - and really, it's a gift card, and whichever one of us received it should be able to use it on whatever they want.
So if I were in your shoes, I would remove the gift cards and see if that brings you any clarity, and I would stay focused only on the money in my cash flow accounts.
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Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Toothaches are the absolute worst - I hope you're feeling better!
Do you remember what the $4.98 adjustment was for? Did you make that adjustment because the gift card showed a higher balance? It sounds like you spent the money on Groceries but then removed the money from the account. For instance, if the account said $50 and you spent $50 on Groceries, the new account balance would be $0. However, if you went back in and adjusted the balance so there was only $45 in the account in the beginning, you still spent $50 on Groceries so you'd be overspent by $5.
If your account balances are currently correct, it's the budget that needs to be adjusted and you'll need to move funds in between your categories to cover the overspending.
I know it's no fun to try to focus on numbers when you aren't feeling well! I sent you a quick email for your permission to look at your account. If you respond there, I'd be more than happy to take a look at things to double-check on what I believe is happening! :)
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Also, to add to what Briefcase mentioned, that's one of the ways we suggest handling cash - marking those amounts as spent as soon as they're withdrawn. For instance, if you buy a $20 AMC gift card, you can mark that $20 as spent in the AMC category. By considering that money already gone from your budget, you've accounted for it without having to track each purchase you make with the gift card.
The other option is to track the individual purchases as you're doing, which can take a bit more time to make sure everything always lines up, but is still an option if you're more comfortable handling things that way. :)
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The amount of money in your categories (in the farthest future month you've budgeted in) should be equal to all the money you have in your accounts now. If you have budgeted more money than you have, then you are overbudgeted.
The "when" only matters in that you are receiving and budgeting new income as it happens, and that money comes out of your categories with spending.
You are overbudgeted by 1.25, but you are also overspent in the Groceries category by 4.98. That means you cannot rely on your category balances to make spending decisions because you have a total of 6.23 of fake money in your categories.
This needs to be fixed.
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So if I have over budgeted and budgeted into May. Stupid question, if I just go to May's budget in one of the categories I should see $1.25 right? I see nothing, and to play it safe I even unhide all the hidden categories in case there was something there.
I am going to bed, migraine coming on, I am hoping someone will come up with a something for me to check in the morning as I am at a lose.I know it needs to be taken care of but I don't know how.
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Evening,
Does this look better?
Took me a couple of hours and going through the budget and then the accounts line by line. Seems what happened is the amount for my Kindle Unlimited Subscription, that I found out is not even due until May 24 not April 24, was doubled. So that is what put me into the red and throw everything off. Once I deleted the extra and hid all the unneeded categories. My budget looks a lot better.
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