Question

Ok help.  If I have $165 left over in my account and I want it to stay in there for a cushion, what do I do on the paperwork when we switch into another month?Ok help. If I have $165 left over in my account and I want it to stay in there for a cushion, what do I do on the paperwork when we switch into another month? Would I just add it to the Expense tracker as a starting balance? I have paychecks at the end of the month pay for paychecks in the beginning of the month so I dont know how to calculate my starting balance each month for expense tracker? Would I just put a mark next to the expense as to not count it as that months expense if it was deducted from a paycheck in a previous month? Or do I go by when the charge actually hit my account? If I leave a cushion in my account am I constantly carrying that over to the following month? I shouldn't do this much thinking at 12:45am  

Answer 1

For the cushion, I don't show it on paper. For example, I log in to my online banking and see that I have 300$ available, but on paper I show 200$ since my cushion is 100$. All that I would move to the next month is the 200$. As for expenses, I write them down when I pay them. For example, if I paid a bill on 1/30 but it didn't clear until 2/2, it went on January's expenses and I give it a check mark to show it cleared. When I rolled over my January bank balance I deducted everything that was still pending (waiting to clear) in my checking from that amount as if they had already cleared, and that balance is what I show as my rollover and starting balance for February :)

Answer 2

I just act like the money doesnt exist. if I have a $200 cushion in my account, I say that $200 is my $0 so i subtract $200 from whatever my total is.  

Answer 3

It’s the starting balance on the expense tracker. I also write my cushion amount on a sticky note at the top of my expense tracker since I add to my cushion each paycheck. I also list it as a bill on my bill tracker. For each new paycheck billy racked I roll over my cushion amount as income and then lost the full cushion amount as a bill. This has worked best for me to know exactly how much my cushion is at any given time and also have my expense tracker to match my bank account balance.