Can I see my budget on a bi-weekly view (Q Mac)

Dudusmitty

Hi, when I budget for groceries, for example, I budget $150 a week. However, in my budget, it shows $600 remaining (the monthly amount). This may cause me to overspend in the current pay period and being short for other budgeted payments. Is there a way to see the remaining budget per two weeks period and not on a monthly view?

John_in_NC

Hi, Dudusmitty:

No, the Budget module will show calculations for the month and year, and not bi-weekly such as with a paycheck.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing! It should help you get focused on budgeting for the entire month, (then) year, and (eventually when you retire) 30+ years!

Dudusmitty

> @John_in_NC said:
> Hi, Dudusmitty:
>
> No, the Budget module will show calculations for the month and year, and not bi-weekly such as with a paycheck.
>
> This isn't necessarily a bad thing! :) It should help you get focused on budgeting for the entire month, (then) year, and (eventually when you retire) 30+ years!
Thanks John. Appreciate you taking the time to answer.

It’s hard to do that. I am looking at a tool as I am not good in planning my money. I think this and zero based budgeting is a must feature in apps like this.

Chris_QPW

EDIT I forgot to include the image I wanted to show  (this is from the Ramsey site).

Note that a zero based budget isn't a "bi-weekly" budget it is quite a different thing.
Notice in this search results they talk about month, "paycheck".

This is also called "envelope budgeting".  And it requires the ability to transfer amounts between budget "envelops".
Quicken isn't setup to do that, but in given your question this is even a different subject.

Bi-weekly view/budget (or any period that lines up with your paycheck might sound like a good idea, but in fact it can never "work".

Your paycheck might be bi-weekly, but your expenses will never be bi-weekly.  Budgets have to be designed to have "savings" for a period outside of the paycheck period.  In fact budgets have to take into account that even bills aren't always monthly.  Sooner or later you have to budget for "other periods of time".

Not to mention if you are married and one person is paid on one schedule and another is paid and a different schedule.

jacobs

Adding to the answers you've received above, I'll just say that Quicken's budgeting does not use the 'envelope budgeting' approach. There are other software products which focus mainly on budgeting and do offer such an approach. If budgeting is the primary reason you're using Quicken, and you're really trying to budget paycheck to paycheck, you might find another tool which better fits your needs. On the other hand, perhaps working with Quicken will help you adapt to more wholistic monthly and longer-term views.