Steve,
Thanks...It did help to remove most of my ccounts (Net contributions
to. That made the budget make a lot more sense to me. I left the
credit card transfers that I am trying to pay off however. My credit
card balances were originally "balance transfers" so there were no
categories/subcategories associated with them. I also had to leave the
Net contributions from: Summer Savings Account. I do not work during
the summer months so this is my income. I was able to include it in my
income by going to the budget settings and unchecking the account.
Strange behavior, but it was the only way the account would show up as
a choice under income.

All the comments in this thread have been helpful, giving me other
ideas on setting up my budget As for FUN, I do consider dining out in
that category, along with lodging, travel, entertainment, golf, hiking,
biking, etc. I have the hardest time trying to decide on the
miscellaneous spending, like the bathroom organizer, or the MS Money
software program. Are these fun items? Are they committed? Not
really... well, maybe MS Money is committed. But a bathroom
organizer.... fun? irregular? I haven't got a handle on how to deal
with all the miscellaneous things. Maybe I will start thinking of them
as "fun".

I don't know if I will continue with this budget in the long run. I
pretty much stay on target with the Scheduled Bills and Cash Flow
forecast. This has worked for me for many years. But I keep hoping to
find a budget that helps me save and invest more, so I'll keep giving
this one a try for now. If nothing else, it is making me look at
categories and subcategories in a whole new way.

Anna



Steve wrote:
- quote -

Steve wrote:
- quote -

I agree. I had a harder time making the AB work for me. In the new
version, I wish I could change (or add) groupings but I'm working with
them. Granted, for the most part the specific expenses I need to track
are on the relatively limited side and I'm not generally looking at the
cash flow report. I Committed Expenses to hold all the payroll
deductions so I can keep it collapsed (infrequent viewing). I use
Irregular expenses for everything that I know I have to pay (and about
how much) with any sort of interval - yearly, weekly, monthly etc. This
is again where I wish I could rename groups or add additional groups.
Fun is really my miscellaneous spending. Unless it's something that I
want to put a specific limit on, it goes into fun which has an overall
limit - like an allowance.

The credit card problem is definately a catch-22. Did they assume that
any card you're trying to pay down you aren't also actively using? I
ran into a problem with the savings piece. I specifically set monthly
savings goals ("pay myself first") thinking. The budget adds the
monthly interest earned to the net contributions so it looks like I'm
exceeding my savings expense. Interest is just a bonus in my way of
thinking. I guess I could manually modify each month's expense limit if
I want to pretty things up.

I put together a giant spreadsheet to set it up originally. Being not
tied to bills has helped me out since I use some of them to assist with
data entry. If the amount changes, it just means I spent less on that
item for the month. If it's a permanent change, it's an extra step to
change the budget allocation. Since that's a rare thing for me, it's
not huge data entry extra effort.


- Cara

"Anna" <rhodesbiz[at]bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:1154964629.294572.63700[at]n13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

I'm having that same problem but probably for a different reason. I have a
transfer from a checking account to a retirement account, which is being
treated as an expense, which of course it isn't.

- quote -

Ouch! Catch-22. That sounds like a fatal flaw in the new S&S Budget. It
make me wonder if they did any serious field testing at all.

Bruce.

Anna wrote:
- quote -

Anna,
Take a deep breath and realize that the programers that
designed this new budget were trying to help the average person to
control their spending. I believe that the mechanics they designed are
more confusing than ever. To my way of looking, ALL my income and ALL
my expenses are assigned to categories and subcategories. At the same
time ALL my income and ALL my expenses are assigned to accounts in
Money. If I allow them to be reported together within one of the
groupings in the budget, I will double up. This means that NO credit
card ACCOUNT should be included in the budget if you are using the
credit card account to record your daily expenses. You should go into
each of your budet groupings (Income, Committed, Irregular, etc. and
first of all, remove any listing that refers to accounts. You should
ONLY have categories/subcategories listed IMHO. Run a YTD report on
Income and expense by category and make sure the TOTAL numbers agree
with what the budget says for actual. Play around with the budget
groups to determine what works best for YOU. I personally don't think
the term "fun" represents dining out. I personally don't know if I will
use this new budget concept, but I'll play with it for awhile. 2007
might be a good time to start using it officially in Money if it seems
better than the AB now available. That, by the way, is not my ideal of
a good budget either. Good luck. Steve

I have been working on the Savings and Spending Buget. I have been
consolidating my categories and moving them. For example, I had a
category Automobile:Maintenance. When I put it into Committed Expenses,
I realized some of transactions were not maintenance, but repair..like
the $800 expense I just had on my SUV air conditioner. So I created
another category called Automobile:Repair to put it into Irregular
Expenses and leave Automobile:Maintenance in Committed Expenses.

I want the budget to work for me, but I have two problems that I am
trying to solve. The first is determining if an expense is a Committed
or an Irregular Expense. I am using this criteria (for now)....I ask
myself " Is this a predictable expense (monthly, yearly) ?" then I
list it under Committed. However, Christmas is a predictable expense,
so is it Committed or Irregular? Same with the Vet bill... Money says
the Vet bill should be Irregular, but it is a regular expense for me
once a year (checkups-shots). So maybe I need to move some of my
Irregular Expenses back to committed to allow for REALLY Irregular
expenses like the Air Conditioner repair or the water pipe at my house
breaking. I am WAY OVER budget for Irregular Expenses.

The MAIN problem I have at this point is the many transfers I have
between accounts. Transfers are looking like expenses. Two credit cards
I pay off each month are gas and groceries (Chase, BOA). Another credit
card I am trying to pay off (Discover). These are transfers from
checking to CC accounts. I can't remove the checking account from the
budget. The help tells me to remove the credit card I pay off each
month from the budget. But if I remove the Chase credit card that I pay
off each month, then all the transactions (groceries, gas, etc) are
ALSO removed from my budget. So the expense is counted twice. Once
under the category groceries, and once under Net Contributions to
Chase. I am totally confused at this point and looking for answers.

Anna




Bruce Chastain wrote:
- quote -

"Chris Cowles" <spam_magnet[at]remove-me-bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:%23Xr7nGeuGHA.2036[at]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Yes, I'm not switching yet. I'm doing all my playing and experimenting in a
test file. They promote it as a "better way to budget" but I'm no where
near being convinced of that.

- quote -

Yes, I keep my Bills and Advanced Budget accurate and have been impressed
with just how accurate the CFF can be. I'lll never switch from Advanced
Budget if it means losing the CFF.

Another big downside for me is that it seems that the Savings & Spending
Budget isn't in any way linked to the scheduled Bills. If I change the
amount of a scheduled bill, that change isn't reflected in the S&S Budget as
it was in the AB.

- quote -

Thanks for your thoughts Chris.

Bruce.

My impression from using it a bit is that it's a blend of the simple (or
whatever they call it) budget, and advanced. I sometimes question whether I
really need all the details I put into the advanced budget, but I know for
sure I need more than the basic one. Maybe I'll find S&S adequate, but it
will be awhile.

One negative affect is how it interacts with Cash Flow Forecast. If you
know how the CFF works, you scheduled predictable bills, and keep an
accurate budget, CFF can be pretty accurate. I suspect the S&S budget will
throw that into question.

A positive affect is that it allows savings tracking better. Play around
with including 'net savings' (or whatever they call it) to see the
improvement there.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL



"Bruce Chastain" <bachastain[at]XNOSPAMXsbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:esMCDOauGHA.1272[at]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I've been spending a couple of hours playing with the Savings and Spending
Budget (converted from a Advanced Budget) in a test file, but I'm still not
sure if I like it more than the AB or not. It seems to have positives but
may be too oversimplified compared to AB. It's different but I'm not sure
if that means better in this case. I'd probably have to run them side by
side for a couple of months before I could be sure.

I've noted that they've made creating a new AB more difficult, which is
discouraging for the future of the AB.

I'm wondering if there is anyone here that has spent more time with it,
perhaps in the beta program, and what you think of it? Is it worth the time
to learn, or will you be sticking with your AB?

Bruce.