Budgeting for future bills

[juliewilson3]

When budgeting I transfer an amount to another account for bills both long and short term. I've worked out all my bills and divided it by my fortnightly pay and transfer this. This amount includes monthly, quarterly and yearly bills but I would like to be about to see in a spreadsheet or app these amounts - lets say: Car rego is paid annually and I contribute $20/fortnight - I want to see it grow and work out for starters how much I need to put into that account to start off (eg: if its due in 9 months, the current balance should be $x).

Does this make sense, does anyone else budget this way.

When I look at YNAB and others like Pocketbook (in Australia) the safe spend catorgery seems only to reflect that month. Thanks for any ideas.

[cooliemae]

I do a very similar thing. We totaled utilities and insurance payments for the year and divide by 26 (bi-weekly paychecks) and just have the money come out of that account when necessary. I like to think of it a digital envelope system where you pay yourself first then have the left over money to do with as you like.

[creditcardfree]

Yes, this is a great way to make sure you can pay those bills that only come due once every 3 months, six months or each year. We do this for car insurance paid every six months, and auto registrations paid one per year.

[doingitallwrong]

You might try Mint.com, it lets you set goals and tracks your progress toward them, although I don't think it tells you exactly where you should be at any given time.

Excel could do this for you, of course. There are tons of free Excel budgeting templates online, I'm sure there are some that have tracking for irregular expenses.

[feh]

I don't plan things that meticulously...infrequent, large expenses come out of our emergency fund.

[phantom]

If you're not afraid of learning double entry accounting, give GnuCash a try. You could set up your checking account and your savings account with sub-categories under it. When you move the money out of the checking account and into the savings account, you would actually move the money into the sub-categories. You could either transfer just $20 into the car category, or you could transfer $100 and put $20 of that in the car category and the other $80 somewhere else using a split transaction. You can set up recurring transactions in GnuCash and have them automatically created as far in advance as you like. Then, it's just a matter of looking ahead to a certain date to see how much you'll have by that time.

Personally, I'm like feh in that I don't budget that carefully for most things and just use the "emergency fund" for the big, non-monthly expenses. But, I do something like what I describe here in GnuCash for my property taxes and home owners insurance.

[sandrark]

When budgeting I transfer an amount to another account for bills both long and short term. I've worked out all my bills and divided it by my fortnightly pay and transfer this. This amount includes monthly, quarterly and yearly bills but I would like to be about to see in a spreadsheet or app these amounts - lets say: Car rego is paid annually and I contribute $20/fortnight - I want to see it grow and work out for starters how much I need to put into that account to start off (eg: if its due in 9 months, the current balance should be $x).

Does this make sense, does anyone else budget this way.

When I look at YNAB and others like Pocketbook (in Australia) the safe spend catorgery seems only to reflect that month. Thanks for any ideas.

YNAB does carry forward those amounts if you have the savings account on budget.

I do what you describe via a cash flow spreadsheet:

I have a monthly bills spreadsheet, going back several years. I can go through and total up each month's "one time expenses", to get an annual total. I then map out the "starting balance" in my savings account, and map the monthly deposits and payouts throughout the next year.

So, I tweak the deposits like an escrow account, so I'm not putting 1/12th of the annual amount into savings; given that car insurance is due in February, property taxes in February, house insurance in June, estimated taxes in April, June, Sept. and January, and the second half of property taxes again in October, car registration in August and November, it's spread out enough so that I can actually deposit 1/15th of the annual amount each month, and stay at about even.

The best part for me is I can do all this on a computer screen - not my phone. I toggle from month to month, or back to last year, and have what I need at my fingertips to play with various scenarios.

[Drake3287]

Like a lot of others on this forum, I do something similar, each pay period I put a certain amount of money towards things such as property taxes, property insurance, etc. I get laughed at for being so organized but at the same time people are jealous that I always have money when I need it!

[snafu]

Seeing how upset colleagues got when an irregular bill like house/car insurance was due, I too jumped into the set aside 1/12 [paid monthly] the sum needed for auto registration, maintenance, condo & cars insurance, dog license etc. Gratefully, our city has a Tax Instalment Payment Program [TIPP] that automatically withdraws a set sum each month for taxes since there is a small reduction in tax for participants [but a big penalty if you default]. That system worked so well I expanded it for gifts, home maintenance/upgrade/update and lately electronics.

Initially it was a big bite from a paycheque that already had a whole page of deductions so we agreed to put a backpay lump sum to give us some stability. If you expect a decent Christmas bonus or a tax refund it can go a long ways to support this type of project. While I must keep $1K balance in my account to avoid a lengthy list of bank charges, I do my best to sweep remaining funds from my regular account into the linked saving account used for intermittent bills. Of course a mere click of a couple of keys transfers money where needed. It's easy to re evaluate this 'escrow-like' account each quarter and invest overage in our ROTH-like investment plan.

These plans need a lot of thought initially as you can't start in January and be fully funded by September for example. Some people dump all their change in a large bucket and have it counted periodically for deposit. I tried to do a 'cost avoidance' plan where money saved by sale price, discount or coupon transferred to savings but it was too much work!
Others put 'found' [unexpected small sums] to bolster or supplement from their Emergency Fund.

An unexpected benefit has been an awareness of 'where the money goes.' It's snowing like mad tomight and rather than shop tomorrow, I'll order one of Mary Hunt's books from the library for my Kindle, make a pot of hot chocolate and read ideas to help me spend less and enjoy the holidays more.

[Eagle]

When budgeting I transfer an amount to another account for bills both long and short term. I've worked out all my bills and divided it by my fortnightly pay and transfer this. This amount includes monthly, quarterly and yearly bills but I would like to be about to see in a spreadsheet or app these amounts - lets say: Car rego is paid annually and I contribute $20/fortnight - I want to see it grow and work out for starters how much I need to put into that account to start off (eg: if its due in 9 months, the current balance should be $x).

Does this make sense, does anyone else budget this way.

When I look at YNAB and others like Pocketbook (in Australia) the safe spend catorgery seems only to reflect that month. Thanks for any ideas.

We set money aside in "sinking funds" for re-occurring monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, and yearly expenses.

For example, we save and pay for our car insurance every 6 months. We get a discount and don't have to pay the surcharge for doing it as monthly payment.