<title>Troubleshoot maintaining your budget</title>
<category>budgetplan</category>
<klink type="trbls">Troubleshoot a budget I've been maintaining</klink>
</index>
<content>
<p>What are you having trouble with?</p>
<extend>
<tease>My expenses exceed my income this budget period.</tease>
<reveal>
<p>Money has calculated that your budget will not balance in the budget period you have chosen unless you take measures to adjust it. You have three options:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reallocate funds from a different budget period.</li>
<li>Balance the excess by adding a one-time income item to your budget, such as overtime pay.</li>
<li>Leave your budget alone and start fresh with your next budget period.</li>
</ul>
</reveal>
</extend>
<extend>
<tease>I'm over my spending limits in some budget categories.</tease>
<reveal>
<p>Your budget is not on track to balance, but you can still take action and stick to it. Just adjust your spending limits up on the categories you've exceeded by borrowing from categories that are still okay. You can also borrow from other budget periods, if necessary.</p>
</reveal>
</extend>
<extend>
<tease>Money tells me I haven't budgeted for certain bills that are included in my budget.</tease>
<reveal>
<p>If you set up your recurring bills and deposits in Money at the same time you create your budget, you may notice that your first month's budget does not show the spending limits you set for some recurring bills. This happens because the first instance of certain bills may occur after the current budget period.</p>
<p>For example, if you paid rent on the May 1 and you happen to set up your Money file on May 15, you may create a bill for rent where the first instance is not the current month, but next month, June 1. In that case, your current month's budget will not show a spending limit for rent in the month of May. However, it will appear in the month of June.</p>
