Savings Goals and Deficit Spending

paulantoinette

My monthly budget includes an $x line item to accrue into an 'aspirational' savings goal. At the end of each month I fund the savings goal with the amount of my under run up to x. On the occasion that I overspend on aspirational items (beyond the monthly X plus whatever has accrued in the savings goal) I'd like to reflect the deficit in the saving goal that then gets paid off through the monthly accrual. What I attempted to do was withdrawal the amount in the savings goal, then add an additional withdrawal entry to the account itself ([aspirational]). That did not overcome the 'no negative' value constraint.
Any suggestions? Is there a different technique to use?
It kind of sounds like an 'accrual' type budget expense category, but I don't think that concept quite works because I'm not expensing on a monthly basis, I'm saving but want to be able to borrow against the future.

Tom Young

I've not really ever used Savings Goals but I'm not surprised that there's a "no negative" value constraint for these "Accounts."  I guess you could create a Liability Account, expense the amount of your "overspending" by crediting (increasing) the balance in the Account - thereby overstating your actual expenses - and when you "catch up" to your "overspending" by transfers to the Savings Goal, reverse the expense you created in the liability Account, bringing its balance to $0 and getting your actual expenses properly stated.

The concept of Savings Goals involves somewhat fictional "savings" - the real money remains in the real Account - so it's kind of hard to create the opposite without creating some fictional "spending."