How can I track the spending of a portion of an account

kevin009

I want to track the spending of a portion of an existing savings account. For example: Say I have $500 in the account and I want to earmark $100 towards say entertainment. I want to know when I've spent my budget. I don't want this to be monthly or yearly. I want it to track perhaps 5 years. I want to add one amount and then track it until that money is spent. I tried the budget feature but it tracks spending monthly or yearly. I also don't want to open a separate account. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Kevin

Sherlock

It's really just a question of how you want to track the spending.  For example, you can use a saved customized report that only includes the one account and the one category you're interested in.  The earmark can be managed using a balancing category.  To earmark $100 to entertainment, you could add a transaction that logically moves $100 between an earmark entertainment category from the entertainment category like its an account and then enter the spending against the earmarked entertainment category.

Tom Young

There's another way of doing this that's similar but puts a "hard limit" on that $100 amount.  Set up a Savings Goal called "Entertainment" and move $100 out of the Savings Account to this Savings Goal.  Now, every time you spend money that goes to the "Entertainment" Category or whatever Category you use where the money should be applied to your "budget" amount, you make an entry into the Savings Account and then also reduce the Savings Goal by the same amount.  When your Savings Goal is zeroed out, you've hit your limit.

Sherlock

It's really just a question of how you want to track the spending.  For example, you can use a saved customized report that only includes the one account and the one category you're interested in.  The earmark can be managed using a balancing category.  To earmark $100 to entertainment, you could add a transaction that logically moves $100 between an earmark entertainment category from the entertainment category like its an account and then enter the spending against the earmarked entertainment category.

Tom Young

There's another way of doing this that's similar but puts a "hard limit" on that $100 amount.  Set up a Savings Goal called "Entertainment" and move $100 out of the Savings Account to this Savings Goal.  Now, every time you spend money that goes to the "Entertainment" Category or whatever Category you use where the money should be applied to your "budget" amount, you make an entry into the Savings Account and then also reduce the Savings Goal by the same amount.  When your Savings Goal is zeroed out, you've hit your limit.

kevin009

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to try Tom's suggestion first. I'll comment later to say whether it filled my needs or not.

Tom Young

I reread my answer and realized I might haven't been as clear as I should have.  In the savings Account expense the cost using whatever Category you normally use.  Then reduce the Savings Goal by the same amount.  Your savings Account will be correct, your Category expense will be correct, your Savings Goal will be reduced.