In YNAB, when the new month starts and there's available money left in a category, it gets rolled over to the new month. But it doesn't count as a partial funded category, I still need to fund it full amount to reach my target.. For example I have a monthly target of 250 for gas, let's say remaining money from last month is $50 and comes the new month I need to assign full $250 and my total available to spend is now $300. My question is, if I wanna use that extra $50 for a diff category why is the gas category showing yellow as underfunded?

In YNAB, when you have leftover money in a category from the previous month, it rolls over to the new month. However, if the category has a monthly target, YNAB expects you to assign the full target amount again for the new month. This is because YNAB treats the leftover money as extra, not as part of the new month's funding. So, if your gas category has a $250 target and $50 rolls over, YNAB will still expect you to assign $250 to meet the target. If you assign less, the category will show as underfunded (yellow), even though the total available amount might exceed the target. This ensures that your budget aligns with your planned spending goals for the month. If you want to use the leftover $50 for another category, you can move it, but the gas category will remain underfunded unless you assign the full $250.

You can change the target from Set aside another 250 to Refill up to 250

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Hey didn't realize this, it's really helpful

I would just add that gas might be the kind of thing you want to set aside rather than refill, depending on why it was $50 dollars lower last month (i.e. you actually drove less, vs you're almost on empty right now)

Probably depends on the person- if you have a highly consistent commute and gas use, having leftover might mean that you’re setting aside too much or you are about to go to the gas station. I noticed something strange- a strategy that may work well is set a weekly target up to whatever a tank of gas costs and refill up to that target weekly , that way it doesn’t matter how many tanks you end up needing, but it doesn’t seem to be possible - even if you set weekly targets, it still makes you start to set that aside on a monthly basis, not weekly

For me gas is a fluctuating expense, there could be months where I drive a lot and months that are to the lower end. So the refill strategy is very applicable.

in my opinion it's better to err on the side of overbudgeting than underbudgeting so every month put in the average gas expenses. you'll wind up with extra in the category now, but in a more expensive month it'll be useful also, you might later wind up with an expense that you need to cover, and if you feel like you truely have some extra money in there, you can use it to cover that expense

I love this thread!