rlogue06 Interesting! Do you have any hidden categories that might be hiding that overspending? If December is reporting overspending, it would be unusual for there not to be any overspending in that prior month (November).  

Let's have you run through a little "self-audit" -- this will help us verify that every single penny in your accounts is accounted for in your budget.  Follow the steps below: 

1. Advance to the first month with no budgeting. (The math is easier there, because all overspending is covered.)

2. In the right sidebar, when no categories are selected, you’ll see your Total Available amount, which is the sum of the Available column.

3. Add that to the amount you have left To be Budgeted and any amount Budgeted in Future, if applicable.

Let’s stop here for a minute, just in case your To be Budgeted was negative. If it is, you would need to subtract it from Total Available, because that means you’ve given jobs to dollars you don’t yet have. Preferably though, you would go back to this month’s budget and budget less in a few categories until To be Budgeted is back in the green at $0.

4. Now, add up the cash in your budget. That includes checking, savings, and cash accounts, plus any positive balances on credit cards if applicable.

5. Your totals in step 3 and 4 should match, to the penny.

Let me know what you find, rlogue06 ! 

-Ben

Ben at YNAB Hi Ben, thanks a lot for your help.

I've done what you said, and got to December's budget with zero 'to be budgeted' and you're right that your steps 3 and 4 do add up.  But that's because I had to allocate the £500+ in November to a random category in November.

what I have realised is that the 'total available' category equates to the amount I have left in my checking/current account added to my savings account.  I hadn't realised that my savings would be included in the 'to be budgeted' money.  I don't want to have to keep budgeting my savings every month, I thought I would be just budgeting the 'additional' savings money that I'm able to put away each month to that total.  I think of my savings account as separate to the money I have coming in each month, which should be enough to cover all of my budget on it's own.

Would the easiest thing be to remove the savings account form my budget completely, and then I'd only be working with the actual money that comes in to my account each month 'to be budgeted'?  

for example, my savings account plus me current account comes to £1500.  At the end of the month I'm going to move any money still in my current account so that I will be starting from zero for december in my current account.  My December wag cheque will be deposited in to that current account and it will be that money that I'm going to budget for December.  I do not want to include my savings in that amount.

Does that make sense?  Is the savings account the reason that my November 'to be budgeted' money is different to my current account balance as described in my original query?

Silver Lion (bc419e839d57)  Once you budget money to a category, it stays in the category until you spend it or move it to another category. This is the benefit of having all of your in the budget.

You don not budget the same money over and over again each month. You only budget new money that you receive.