Does anyone use YNAB (You Need A Budget) and fancy a support/chat thread?

[lougle]

I've just got the trial version and I'm hooked, if not slightly overwhelmed. I'm currently in 'why is it asking me to budget so much money' mode.

I'm hoping that I'll really take off with it because it sounds quite life-transforming.

Sorry if this is asked and answered.

Can I like up YNAB with my online banking?

thanks!

Yes, you can, if your bank supports statement export. But otherwise, you can just enter the transactions as you do them. You can set up transactions on schedule for your regular ones, so it's only ad hoc ones that need entering.

Ah so it's download/upload - no link?

Yes, Crowler. YNAB is not aiming to be a financial tracker in the same way as other software - the YNAB method is about getting your money, then deciding what to do with it. So the actual recording of the spending is only a check that you've done what you said you'd do. Whereas most other budgeting tools are focused on 'what did you do with your money last month?' YNAB asks 'what will you do with your money this month?'

Just thought I'd come on to say - I've always had a fairly fluid pay day. Contract says 25th but pay normally comes through any time between 18th and 22nd (and is technically scheduled for 20th)

Didn't get paid today and for the first time in years it doesn't really matter. I'm annoyed coz I want to play with YNAB but I'm not down to my last couple of quid :)

This feels great!

How exciting, Living well done!

That's great Living! So happy for you.

I'm updating my monthly bills at the moment - really wish there was an interface. But your enthusiasm is contagious!

Marking place, I need this!

I have a question - I've created recurring transactions - under "all accounts" you can see my "scheduled transactions". Should these not automatically default into my budget for the month? Confused.

thanks!

Crowler, your scheduled transactions will appear in your account as the date rolls in, but you'll still have to approve them as actually being correct on the day. Once they're in your account, they'll go into your budget as an outgoing, but you'll still have to budget your incomings for it, because the whole point of YNAB is that you make spending decisions consciously. If it did it for you, then you wouldn't be making those tricky choices yourself.

Sure but shouldn't the "budget" reflect all planned transactions?

I am kind of getting a handle on it but am confused by the entry in the register. Seems like planned should show up in my budget without the register being updated.

The budget will only reflect what you have decided it does.

Let's look at spending - you wander through town and see a t-shirt, branded, reduced to £10. You think 'I've got to have it.' So you spend the £10 and enter it as 'clothing' in YNAB.

What happens to your budget?

Well, if you had allocated £10 to 'clothing' prior to seeing the t-shirt, your budget would show £10 allocated, £10 spent, £0 balance. Your budget would be fine.

If you hadn't allocated £10 to 'clothing' prior to seeing the t-shirt, your budget would show £0 allocated, £10 spent, -£10 balance. You'd be £10 over spent. So then, you'd need to decide which category to take £10 from to balance out the over spend.

The same happens with scheduled transactions. They are just 'spending pending'! When they show up in your account they'll be in bold, and you'll need to authorise them. Once you've authorised them, if you've allocated money in your budget to that item, then it will balance out. If you haven't, then you'll have over spent.

So if you put a scheduled transaction for rent, of £200, but don't budget for it, then you'll have a £200 over spend. It's your job to allocate the money before the scheduled transaction hits the account, so that the money is sitting there waiting.

" Seems like planned should show up in my budget without the register being updated."

Ahhh...we're talking at cross-purposes

No.

A scheduled transaction is something that will happen in the future. It's a convenience measure.

The budget should only reflect what's actually happened on the day you look at it - so future stuff isn't in there.

However, you can plan ahead, and make sure you've allocated money to the category in advance, so that when it does go in, the money is ready.

I have my categories split into 'week 1' 'week 2' 'week 3' 'week 4', because we have income weekly. So each Friday, I look at YNAB and think 'what does this income have to do until next Friday?' So if there are scheduled transactions for a date in week 3, I allocate money to that category at the beginning of week 3.

I should say I only have a couple of days until.I do start to panic but hey!

OK I understand kind of lougle. I think that the scheduled transactions are reflected in my "available to budget" balance but I'm so new at this (I have spend about a half hour on it) that I may well be wrong.

I assume I can load this on my iphone and they'll be synched?

Thanks Lougle, AKA YNAB support desk.

Also I've started mid-month and this is confusing me, perhaps all will be illuminated when I start February.

It is confusing mid month. Just work with the money you have and work out what you need to pay before payday. Key for month 1 is keeping it simple.

Thank you, thank you so much for this thread which I've just spotted! :)

I think that this is just what I need! I really need to take control of my finances. I earn a reasonable amount but always feel I've got no money, and wonder how that's even possible...

I've tried budgeting spreadsheets but they tend to be about what you've spent, not planning future spending.

I'm going to get the trial version and give it a go!

Hi all. OK Lougle etc I can see that my scheduled transactions are showing up as outflows in future months. How can i create recurring budget entries?

I think I need dropbox to synch across devices, right?

Ooh GreenMouse - another convert

Crowler - no Your outgoing transactions are never reflected in your Available to Budget balance unless you have allocated money to the categories they sit in. The Available to Balance budget is purely the amount of money that is in your account, that isn't already allocated.

Any incoming scheduled transactions will be reflected in your ATB, because it's income that you allocate to spending.

If you get paid £1000 and have budgeted £1000 to rent, then your ATB will be £0.

If you then spend £1000 on chocolate instead, your ATB will still be £0, but you will have underspent your rent budget by £1000 and overspent your chocolate budget by £1000.

I know it seems a bit confusing, but it's because most budgeting softwares are actually 'spending trackers' - you project how much you'll get each month. You project what you'll spend it on. Then you look to see if you actually did what you said you'd do.

YNAB is the other way round. Spending is the very last bit of the equation. In YNAB you get the money, give it a job, then spend according to your budget. If you want to spend money in a category that you haven't allocated money to, then you either shift money from one category to the other, or you live with the fact that you've overspent.

It does make sense, once you've got it, but it turns budgeting completely on its head.

The best thing you can do is to make a new local budget and play! See what happens when you put £500 into the account. See what happens when you spend in a category that you haven't allocated money to. Play with how to increase the balance in a category, or to swap categories. Etc, etc.

thanks lougle - I'm beginning to get a grip on it, having spent an hour or so today on it.

1. Is there a way to make a budgeted item recurring?
2. Is there a way to take a large yearly payment i.e. car insurance and amortize over every month? I think this is the rainy day category, but then shouldn't you have the opportunity to link the rainy day savings to the yearly expenditure?

1. There's no way to assign a set amount to a category each month - Jessie (the founder) feels that a crucial part of the method is to consciously budget each month.

However, at the top of the monthly column, there is a lightening bolt. That has 'quick budget options'. When you click it, there is an option to fill all the empty cells with either: budget used last month, average outflows for the last 3 months, average outflows for the last year, total scheduled outflows this month, or balance to 0.00.

So you can quickly populate the fields.

1. The easiest way to do this is to name a category 'car insurance £600 per year/£50 per month', for example, then each month you budget £50 to that category. If you don't spend the £50, on month 2, you will budget £50 but the balance will be £100. Then, when you need it, you'll have the £600.

You don't have to use the categories you were given - make them your own.

You can save up for 100 yearly expenses if you want to, it really is that customisable.

OK, thinking of downloading trial of this. On paper we earn enough to cover outgoings, and I have a reasonably good grip on what those outgoings are, but struggle with how much available cash I have and what I can actually 'afford'. So this sounds perfect. Is it easier to start this at the beginning of a month/payday not least because I have a tax return to file online first.

MaKettle I'd really suggest starting with Feb. I can't tell what I'm doing at this point because I started mid-month.