Tallyfold · quick-start
How to set up and run a sinking-fund tracker
A one-pager to keep next to your printer. Print it once, slip it into the binder with the sinking-fund pages, refer back each month.
Pick one goal per row and a target date
The right column shape — Goal, Target, Monthly, Saved, Remaining, Target date — carries over to the Canva template. A sinking fund only works when each row has a known date so the household can see what the saved pile is for.
- Pick the expenses you know are coming — annual insurance, car replacement, a holiday, a wedding, a medical buffer — and put one per row.
- Write the date the bill lands or the goal is needed next to each row. "Aug 2026", "Q4 2026", anything that fixes it in the calendar.
- If a goal is dormant this month, leave its Target blank. Empty rows are honest; crossed-out ones are noise.
Set monthly from target ÷ months left
Sinking funds are an arithmetic trick: target divided by time. The total of the Monthly column is what the household needs to find per month. If that figure exceeds what the budget can spare, something has to give — either fewer goals, smaller targets, or later dates.
- Divide the Target by the number of months until the Target date. That is your Monthly contribution per row.
- Round the Monthly to the nearest $10 / €10 / £10 so you can read totals at a glance.
- If the Monthly is bigger than the household can afford, push the Target date out — a stretched target is honest, an unaffordable one is fiction.
Tick saved weekly and shade the Progress blocks
The Progress indicator is for the household's eyes. The Saved column is the running total you trust. Over a year the shading becomes the story — which goals surprise you, which ones quietly fill, which ones you should bump the Monthly on.
- Each row has ten boxes printed at the right. Shade one box for every ~10% of the way to Target.
- Five shaded ≈ halfway. Done is all ten shaded. A quick glance tells the household which goals are on track.
- On a payday or Sunday moment, write the new Saved amount in the column. The Progress boxes are the visual; Saved is the truth.