<prompt> Human: Last year I wanted to take a trip to Portland. I estimated the cost of the trip and socked away money from every paycheck for several months leading up to it.Afterwards I thought huh, saving up really made the trip more manageable and enjoyable, I wonder what else I can save for?What Ive ended up with is a list of every once-a-year thing I plan to buy in the next 12 months birthdayxmas gifts, trips, .etc, estimated the cost, and broken it up into monthly payments that I throw into savings.Short term its been pretty painful I am in effect paying for Christmas gifts already but I feel like once I start hitting the events on the list and they come and go without any effect on my budget Ill be happy.Does anyone else have a similar system?Edit:Thanks for all the responses! A huge thanks to those who pointed me to YNAB, it seems like a highly polished and well designed version of what Ive been trying to create in Excel. Assistant: I use YNAB and break my budgeting into 4 main categories, two of which are Non-Monthly Expenses and Savings. Non-Monthly Expenses are as you say monthly payments to funds for things like insurance, memberships, etc. that are billed in non-monthly intervals, so the money is always available when I ultimately get the bill. Savings will be monthly payments to funds for any savings goals I might have. Currently these are e-fund padding, car maintenance, pet expenses, holidaysgifts, and a house fund which hasnt started yet.... Need an oil change? Pull 40 from the car maintenance fund. Friends birthday? Pull 20 from the holidaygifts fund to get them a little something. Cat has to go to the vet? 100 from the pet expenses fund. It would probably drive some people crazy to manage their money this closely but it works for me, and despite thinking about money a lot I literally never stress about it using this system. What youre doing is smart and will make your life a lot easier!Human: YNAB looks like a much more awesome version of the monstrosity I have created in Excel. I might need to check that out.  <response>: Im using YNAB for exactly the type of things you mentioned. I have it broken down into pretty specific categories like furniture, tech purchases, new car, car repairs, home repairs, christmas, etc. All of them slowly build up over time to the point where I now have almost 2 months pay in my checkingon top of my 6 month emergency fund in savings, most of which is already allocated to upcoming purchases in the coming months, just waiting for an individual category to fill up enough to buy that next item new couch should be next!. It really makes all the purchases guilt free as they are planned out and when you are ready to buy something you can just pull the trigger with no worries. 