instead of trying to average out your grocery expenses and using that to assign monthly goal in YNAB (with the hope that the cheaper months will leave more in the "envelope" for the expensive months: I'm thinking that in every month I'd assign the amount that I feel is realistic for that month. So in January I'd actually assign less than I would in April. My main issue with the averaging approach is that I don't feel like I'm truely working against a budgeting amount. I see X, and X looks like amount of money that i'm "allowed" to spend, but really the goal should be less cause I need to save up for april

I budget extra grocery expenses for Pesach in a separate category (Yom Tov), which gets some money assigned to it every month. That way I can keep my ‘base’ grocery amount about the same every month

I agree with the averaging issue but the problem with your approach is that you're not saving up for the more expensive months. So consider Shaul's suggestion

Are you going to do the same for variability in utility costs? Groceries are weird because it’s like 82.2% fixed and the rest discretionary. Unless you live near a Gourmet Glatt or similar in which case it’s 35/65. I think Shaul’s approach works best.

I am doing the same with utilities, but groceries are something that we (can) have a bit more control over then utilities, I feel. The issue I have with Shaul's approach, is that 1. I don't really know how much extra I spend on pesach, etc. but I do know what my average grocery spending was last year 2. I really don't want to sit down and divide my spending between regular groceries, vs pesach stuff, especially around pesach time, and when so much stuff is ambigious I'm thinking of making a regular sinking fund just for "extra" groceries, and when needed, I'll move stuff over to groceries to cover overspending

@rapid-account-67960 You don’t actually have to classify anything. • Just look at your monthly grocery spend last year around Pesach and compare that to your standard. • For example, if in April you spent 2000 NIS more, then you just divide 2000/12 and allocate that much towards the Pesach fund each month. • When Pesach arrives, do the same. ◦ All groceries up to your standard amount get assigned to the regular grocery category. ◦ Anything above that goes to the Pesach category. (BTW - I do this with all my yom tov expenses in a single category, so I include 4 minim, yamim noraim seats, sukka touch up expenses, shalach manos, etc., as well as additional groceries, then divide that by 12 and allocate monthly.)

@rapid-account-67960, was @straight-nightfall-20143 convincing for you? or can I try to convince you more?