Guidance for situation that I've got

[Dennis Powless]

I do the same thing, but call it general spending.  I used to budget
everything and track everything, but found that to be too time
consuming.  I have an accounts called:

Expenses:Common Expenses:General Spending
Expenses:Common Expenses:Groceries
Expenses:Common Expenses:Dining
Expenses:Auto:Fuel

For us these represent the four top budget items that are hard to stay
on track.  So, I specifically track those.  Then of course, I have the
usual monthly bills, house, car, electric, gas, credit cards etc...

D

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Tommy Trussell
<tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:53 AM, Peter Boosten <peter at boosten.org> wrote:
>>
>> On 17 dec 2010, at 00:25, FireFly wrote:
>>
>>> On occasion, my wallet is empty, and i keep some of the cash, so I have
>>>
>>> Assets:Account1 -$200
>>> Assets:Account2 +$100
>>> Expenses:Miscellaneous +$100
>>
>>
>>
>> I think you're making a mistake here, since your wallet is to be treated as an asset as well (you didn't spend it yet, and as such it's no expense).
>>
>> In my case it would look like:
>>
>> Assets:Account1 -$200
>> Assets:Account2 +$100
>> Assets:Wallet +$100
>>
>> Then if I went to a store and paid cash, then it would look like:
>>
>> Asset:Wallet -$40
>> Expenses:Grocery: +$40
>>
>> But of course you would have to keep track of anything that goes out (or into) your wallet.
>>
>
> I have a GnuCash account called Assets:Current Assets:Cash in Wallet
> (I don't know if it is part of the standard account tree that GnuCash
> set up, but I believe it is close.)
>
> I TRY to keep up with cash expenditures, but miss a lot. Every few
> months I balance the Cash In Wallet account (I use the small amount
> that is usually in the wallet at any time as the ending balance) and
> my "correcting" transaction goes into Expenses:Miscellaneous.
>
> SO when I look at my accounts at the end of the month or year, the
> amount going into Expenses:Miscellaneous represents the total of the
> amounts I did not adequately track. Hopefully it is small and
> represents only the occasional pack of gum or whatever, but since I
> keep track of spending for the whole household I usually don't have
> any idea where a lot of the money went.
>
> Fortunately it IS a reasonable procedure to use when you don't want to
> track everything. It's also handy to categorize those things you DO
> want to track, such as giving 20 in cash to so-and-so as a gift or
> charity or a loan or whatever. Then when they ask for more you can go
> back to remember the previous amount, or you can report it on your
> taxes, or whatever. And if it was a loan, you can properly account for
> it when/if they repay you.
>
>
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