Is there any reason to save any of the Scouting Budget? Does it carry over into recruiting, or is it use it or lose it?

In the end, it's use it or lose it (same for recruiting dollars). That said, most folks will keep a certain dollar amount saved for when recruiting starts. If you find yourselves in several battles or higher division teams are on your players and it's unlikely you'll sign guys you targeted, having extra scouting dollars to find new players comes in handy.

And just an FYI-your scouting and recruiting budgets are fixed during the first recruiting period (RS1). After the season ends, when the second recruiting period begins (RS2), you can cut players you did not sign (so, those signed by the sim or another coach though, I wouldn't cut any of Arfy's old players) and get full scouting and recruiting dollars for each player cut.

“I wouldn't cut any of Arfy's old players”

For the most part I agree, but I would also add that that Arfy’s teams are constructed in a very specific way to play a certain style; if you’re going to go in another direction - and you’ve already switched offensive and defensive sets - it doesn’t matter as much. You’re not getting the value you would get if you were carrying over the old sets and style. Now most of those players are good enough on their own where they’re still going to be better than what you can reasonably acquire on your own as a first season coach in RS2 alone with only the resources gained from the cut. But Guenther, for example, is a guy I would be be looking hard at replacing, if I could line an extra guy up. If he was a soph, he would be a definite cut for me; it’s a little less clear because he’s going to roll into scholarship resources next season anyway, so the net gain from cutting him is lower, but he’s the kind of guy who is much less valuable to you in the kind of scheme you’re going to be running than he was to Arfy.

I’m glad you mentioned running a different scheme… that was not my intent and I just assumed the Off/Def carried over from what it was, I hadn’t noticed that it changed. Fixed that.

So it sounds like scouting money can only be used for scouting, and it’s a good idea to hold on to some just in case I need to do some last minute scouting… makes sense.

Yeah, scouting and recruiting funds are completely separate now. I generally save between 1-5k for the second session, it all kind of depends on how much I’m starting with and whether I expect to want to look at transfers after the season, which is usually what I’m saving scouting $ for. If you have a few thousand in reserve, you can send out your assistant in RS2 and find some transfers in your territory, and scout the up all the way, plus maybe expand your reach a little for a position if first session didn’t go well.