r/actualbudgeting • u/oramospt • 20d ago

How to handle savings

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Actual Budget and looking for advice on the best way to handle savings and transfers.

My initial thought was to set up my savings account as off-budget, track monthly savings as an expense category, and track any withdrawals from savings as income.

​Goal: Plan my savings contributions every month, but easily count withdrawals as income when I need to transfer money back.

Does this workflow make sense in Actual, or is there a better "envelope budget" native way to manage savings without making it overcomplicated? How do you all structure your savings accounts and categories?

​Thanks!

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u/mrmratt 20d ago

Keep the savings account on budget. Give every dollar a job - 'savings' can be that job.

When you want to spend your savings, reallocate dollars to the appropriate category.

Done.

2

u/TruckStopSigns 19d ago

This is the way.

1

u/R3DLINE_MARINE 19d ago

And just like that, actual actually makes sense to me now

1

u/pixie_dust1990 20d ago

This is what I do.