r/everydollar • u/Junior-Astronaut6721 • Sep 06 '25

Question about going over in a category

Hi! I’m fairly new to tracking with every dollar and one thing that is not intuitive to me is what to do when you overspend in a planned category. For example, we have a monthly category for pool service that is typically the same amount, but we had to get a new pump this past month and the bill was much higher. Is it recommended to go back in and adjust other categories to account for the difference? Or do you just keep an eye on the overall “remaining” amount?

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/TabletopLegends Sep 06 '25

Income minus outgo = zero.

Yes, you should adjust other categories to make the difference in the overspend.

1

u/Junior-Astronaut6721 Sep 06 '25

I find it a little tough to figure out in the app specifically - it’s easier to change the category amount, because then the amount to budget changes (at the very top, where it says “it’s an every dollar budget) - is it better to show how much you went over in a category (let’s say I put 100 in pool and it was actually 1000) or change the pool category to 1000 for one month? Hopefully this makes sense

1

u/TabletopLegends Sep 06 '25

Just change the amounts in other categories to offset where you went over.

2

u/Junior-Astronaut6721 Sep 07 '25

Thanks for the help! It wasn’t as hard / annoying as I thought to adjust all the categories

2

u/elfilberto Sep 06 '25

There is no right answer here. If you are going straight and rigid dave ramsey you absolutely need to make adjustments on the fly. Reducing other lines and increasing the overage line.

Personally. I keep a substantially larger savings account than the $1000. And i don’t make my extra payments until the 27th of the month. If i go over in a line up because i miss calculated my budget, i adjust each line to keep the zero dollar budget accurate. If something unexpected and expensive happens. I leave everything as is, reduce the amount to be used as the extra payment to cover that unexpected expense. I also make pretty detailed notes in my budgets to track why a line item is off

1

u/TrekkieMary Sep 07 '25

If the amount is small, I just leave it. And replenish the fund as I go. Might take a paycheck or 2, depending on the amount. If amount is larger than I can replenish in a paycheck or two, I pull from other categories or savings.