Savings Budget - Metrics don't make sense to me

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1

Hi,
I’m finding the savings budget sheet to be more than a little confusing - especially rolling over savings each month.

To explain, I’ve started a budget as of April 1. I’m transitioning away from an envelope sheet so I have a bunch of savings envelopes I’m trying to transition over. I have setup a sample sheet and I’m using that to illustrate my issue.

March sample data:

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In March (April is my starting month, so I’m capturing what was in there as of March 31. ), I have added 1250 to the budget as the starting balance for the Monthly Goal category to hold my saved amount. I also added 1250 to the income budget item and added an income transaction for 1250 so that everything balances out to 0. Everything looks good for this month.

However, here’s April:

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When I switch to April, the budgeted amount rolls into the savings column, which is great.

I have another income budget of 1250 and incoming transaction of 1250 to match the amount I budgeted in expenses.

However, the metrics for the sheet shows a cashflow of -1250.

I think this is because it considers savings as an expense.

I asked chatGPT to look through the documentation and he claimed that I’m supposed to have an income category where each month I take the previous savings value and place it into this new category.

Ok, it kind of works:

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The problem is, it’s wrong. I don’t have 2500 of income that month. I have 1250 and I also have 1250 in savings. They’re two separate things.

I’m pretty sure I’m doing something wrong but I’m completely lost and can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong or not understanding.

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Hi @MikeAndClaire
Thank you for posting in the Tiller Community!

I am not using this template so I can not speak specifically, however I saw you said you used ChatGPT and I wondered if Google Gemini might give a different response. It said:

Transitioning between budgeting methods, like moving from a digital envelope system, definitely takes some adjustment – you’re not alone in finding some aspects a bit confusing at first!

It sounds like you’ve hit on a common point of confusion regarding how savings contributions are reflected in cash flow metrics within many budgeting frameworks. Often, when you budget money towards a savings goal (like transferring it to a virtual “envelope”), it’s treated as an “expense” for that month’s cash flow calculation. The money hasn’t left your bank account, of course, but from the perspective of the monthly budget, it’s been allocated or “spent” towards that savings goal, reducing the amount available for other types of spending during that period. This might be why you’re seeing a negative cash flow figure when you budget for savings – the system is essentially earmarking those funds.

Different budgeting templates and personal setups handle this in various ways, and finding the view that makes the most sense for you is key. Exploring the Tiller Community forums is a fantastic way to see how other users approach savings tracking and cash flow analysis – there are often insightful discussions and shared setups!

Who out there is using the savings budget sheet who can weigh in?

-Alice
Tiller Evangelist

Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

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Hi @ MikeAndClaire

There’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m not entirely sure I follow what you’re trying to do, so I apologize if I’ve got it all wrong. Savings Budget is the budget tool I’ve used since I joined Tiller.

Are you trying to track funds to meet a savings goal in the traditional sense of saving in a savings or investment account, trying to re-allocate the $1250 you have left in your envelopes, or both? If it’s big-item savings (vacation, home improvement, etc), the Tiller Savings Goal Tracker is an add-on sheet that may be useful. Introducing the Tiller Savings Goal Tracker

The Savings Budget compares the monthly budget you’ve set for each category against your actual spending in those categories, and keeps a running tally of the unspent (“available”) funds in each category. If you’re starting April with an extra $1250 from your savings envelopes, you can add it as a lump sum to one of your expense categories, using Adjust ± Modifies, as you did in your last screenshot, or divide the total between multiple categories. At the end of each month, any unspent funds (savings) are “rolled over” into the same category for the following month. For example, you start April with a monthly budget of $200 for Restaurants. If, at the end of the month, your restaurant spending totaled $150, the “saved” $50 will roll over and be available as additional restaurant funds in May. If you have “Adjust ± Modifies” set to Savings, the $50 saved from your restaurant budget in April will be in the Savings column, Budget will remain $200, and Actual will be $250. I have a mad money/slush fund category named “Rainy Day” with a budget of zero that I use for any unplanned money I receive—money sent from Grandma for my birthday, for example. If I go over my budget for Clothes, I use Adjust ± Modifies to move part or all of my Rainy Day funds to my Clothes budget. Likewise, if you find a budget category ballooning with available funds, you can reallocate some of it to a different category.

If you haven’t seen it yet, this resource document was very helpful to me when I began using Savings Budget. Docs: Savings Budget sheet

There’s a bit of a learning curve for Savings Budget, but it’s an amazing tool once you get accustomed to using it.

Hang in there, and don’t be shy about asking questions. This community is very generous with sharing advice and experiences.
~Rebecca

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Hi @MikeAndClaire – I echo what @Rebecca.S said about how the Savings Budget primarily tracks the unspent portion of your budget from previous months. Just to build on her comment:

“The Savings Budget compares the monthly budget you’ve set for each category against your actual spending in those categories, and keeps a running tally of the unspent (“available”) funds in each category. If you’re starting April with an extra $1250 from your savings envelopes, you can add it as a lump sum to one of your expense categories, using Adjust ± Modifies, as you did in your last screenshot, or divide the total between multiple categories.”

To simulate that in your sample sheet:

  • Add a new Expense category called “Savings Envelope” and give it a budget of $1,250 for March.
  • Don’t assign any transactions to that category for March.

When you flip the Savings Budget sheet to April, you’ll now see $1,250 in the Savings column for that category—this simulates carrying over your envelope balance. From there, you can distribute that savings to other categories using the Adjust ± Modifies workflow.

Going forward, even with a very basic setup, you’ll start to accumulate unspent funds in your budget categories each month. You can either distribute those savings directly to other categories where you need them, or transfer them all into your Savings Envelope category to pool them and redistribute later.

If you plan to add $1,250 each month to replicate a savings envelope process, Savings Budget might be a force-fit. I don’t personally use savings envelopes, but you might consider the Envelope Register template:

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I use the savings budget, but never used the metrics/cash flow portion. I looked at it mine, and from what i can gather, the expense budget is your roll over plus your budgeted amount, and the cash flow is the budget income less the expense budget, so it gives a cash flow that doesn’t seem accurate. My budget looks good with just the monthly, but the month+savings screws everything up. So I am thinking that there is a flaw in the underlying work to show the budgeted amount that isn’t taking into consideration that the income won’t necessarily be greater than the expense because of the carryover.

6

Hi,
I have tried and tried to use the Savings Envelope, to no avail. It’s too complicated and not enough Up-To-Date documentation. I was constantly not remembering to change the Adjust ± Modifies cell, so had to backtrack - and messing things up. I found that the Ultimate Budget (by RichL) was much more useable.
Ultimate budget
It just made more sense to me.

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Thank you @jemmoa7 for sharing the Envelope Budget Template.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Envelope Budget v. 2.0 template created by @richl in the Community, here’s a little context on why it might be a great choice for some:

It’s a really neat option, especially if you’re a big fan of the envelope budgeting method. (If you’re new to that, it’s basically a way to manage your spending by allocating specific amounts of cash (or digital funds in this case!) into different category “envelopes” each month or pay period. The goal is to only spend the money available in each specific envelope for its purpose – once the envelope is empty, the spending stops for that category until the next funding period!)

Here’s what makes this specific template stand out for that method:

  • Deep Envelope Budgeting Focus: It’s built from the ground up for envelope budgeting fans.
  • Funding & Goal Tracking: It includes customizable templates to fund your envelopes and has dedicated ways to track savings goals and your progress towards them. It even features a specific sheet just for tracking how your envelopes get filled.
  • Future Planning: A cool feature is the ability to track not just the current month but also future balances, which is super helpful for planning ahead.
  • Custom Views: Version 2.0 added the ability to build custom view templates, letting you quickly switch between different insights, like viewing by group or account.
  • Reconciliation Help: It includes a balance comparison sheet designed to make reconciling your envelope balances with your actual bank balances easier.

This is a fantastic community-created template (huge props to @richl !) that works with the Tiller Foundation Template.

Thanks again for highlighting this option, sharing different approaches and templates is what makes this community rock!

-Alice
Tiller Evangelist

Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

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Thanks for the great writeup Alice. I really appreciate that so many people like using Ultimate Envelopes. For those who want to know more, please visit the Notion site for support.
Your connected workspace for wiki, docs & projects | Notion

Reach out to me if you have any questions.

-Rich

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100 % @richl thanks for breaking it down @TillerAlice !

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Huh, my Savings Budget doesn’t have any metrics stuff like that. How do I enable that or get that? Do I just have an older version?