Reserves, Savings, and College

No matter what budgeting system you use, you need two things: a place to stash savings and a way to track debt. In Banzai, your budget categories can’t go below zero. There is an exception to this rule: the Reserves budget. In Junior, it’s called Savings; in Teen, it’s called College; and in Plus, it’s called Reserves.

You have debt if you spend more money than you have. To reflect this debt in your budget, the reserves budget can go negative.

If you’re saving more money than you spend, this budget will be positive.

This special budget should be where you save for your goal. The balance in this budget will change when you use it to pay for an expense or put money into it when you receive income. When you receive income, determine how much to put into your other budgets, and put the rest in your reserves budget.

Junior

In Junior, once you make money from your lemonade stand or allowance, figure out how much to put in your spending jar, paying off your IOUs, or save for lemonade supplies. Put the rest in your savings account.

Teen and Plus

In Teen and Plus, determine how much you need to put in your budgets. Take a look at your upcoming bills, and take out what you think will be necessary for food, car, rent, utilities, and other expenses. Put what’s remaining into your college or reserves budget.