Took me 6 months to find a budgeting app that actually tracks sinking funds

I kept manually tracking my car insurance and Christmas gifts in a notes app until I realized I'd been double-counting expenses for almost half a year. Has anyone else spent way too long trying to find a method that just works for irregular bills?

3 comments

3 Comments

williamhenderson2d ago

Wait have you tried giving each sinking fund its own dedicated savings account? Thats the only way I stopped messing up my car insurance money. I set up automatic transfers to a separate account for each thing like my annual vet bill and property taxes. Took me forever to realize I was spending the Christmas gift fund on random stuff because it was all in one bucket. Now when I see that account balance I know exactly what its for no guessing games.

the_oliver2d ago

Is it really that big of a deal if you accidentally spend Christmas gift money on takeout once or twice? Honestly, I've never had this issue. I just keep one savings account and a spreadsheet on my phone. If I see $500 in there and know $400 is for insurance next month, I just don't spend the $500. It's not that hard to keep track of. Separate accounts for every little thing sounds like a headache. I'd probably forget which bank has my vet bill money and end up closing the wrong account by accident.

abby_martinez2d ago

Yeah the "one bucket" thing is exactly where I kept messing up too. I tried the separate accounts thing for a while but honestly having like 8 different savings accounts got confusing to keep track of. What I ended up doing was naming the accounts really specific things like "Car Insurance Due April" and "Christmas Gifts 2024" so there's no guessing when I open my banking app. It's a little extra work to set up but now I don't have to remember which account is for what anymore. Maybe it's just me but having that clear label makes the money feel more real and harder to accidentally spend.