Tired of living payday to payday? Can't get out of debt? Try a better way to manage your bank account(s). Budget is based on the tried and true envelope method of budgeting. It's a much easier way to see where your money is, where it's needed, and where it went.
The Envelope Model
The Budget program is based on a simple model. It is assumed that people are paid periodically. Portions of each pay need to be allocated to pay regular bills (i.e. the mortgage, groceries, etc). Funds left over are available to be used in any way desired. Amounts needed to pay bills are defined so that as each bill is due, funds are present to make payments.
A simple illustration is a method of maintaining a budget prior to the advent of computers. The check was cashed and money distributed among real paper envelopes marked with the name of the bill, for example, electricity, food, rent, etc. Any remaining amount was used as needed. At the end of the month when a bill came due, the funds in the correct envelope were used to pay the bill. It was a simple but effective way of ensuring that funds were available and a budget was maintained.
Budget follows the envelope model. You tell the program who the pay sources are, how much they get paid, and how often. You then create the envelopes, and specify how much from each pay is to be placed in the envelope for each payday. When you get paid, you record the pay and the proper amount is placed in each envelope; if there is any left over it is placed in a predefined envelope named "Available". When bills need to be paid, you select the relevant envelope and write the check from the funds in that envelope. It's like having a checkbook for each envelope.
Budget keeps track of how much money is actually in your bank account(s). However, for each envelope you can track how much money is being spent against the amount of money budgeted from each pay. You can also make a deposit directly to each envelope. For example, sometimes you receive money such as an insurance refund which you might want to deposit directly into your "Medical" envelope.
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