doing budgeting/escrow within checking account

[Scott Munns]

Hello,

I just went through the tutorial on GnuCash.  It looks very powerful,
especially because of the double-entry accounting.  For me, though, the
question is, can it be set up to work the way our family manages its money
(or close enough to make it work)?  Right now we are using Microsoft Money +
a home-grown Microsoft Excel spreadsheet because we can't figure out how do
it all in one package.  Believe me, I'd love to get rid of Microsoft, plus
all of the duplicate work entering transactions into both programs!

We budget very carefully on a monthly basis.  We maintain "mini-accounts"
within our checking account to set aside money each month for various
categories.  At each paycheck, we assign $$ to each mini-account (this isn't
an actual withdrawal from the checking account).  Then, as we make each
expenditure out of the checking account, we also reduce the mini-account's
balance by the same amount.  If the money isn't available in the
mini-account (would result in a negative balance), we don't make the
purchase!  In other words, we use it as a forward-looking tool that affects
our behavior *this month* instead of waiting until next month, seeing that
we overspent, and then adjusting.

Also, by tracking the low point of our checking account each month, then
subtracting how much money we need to maintain in "escrow" across our
sub-categories, we know how much additional principal we can safely pay on
our house loan.  Extra Principal = Low Point - (Escrow + Buffer)

Any ideas how we could solve this in GnuCash?

Thanks,
Scott
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