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.

I do put them into the phone as I go if I can, but my priority is to record cash transactions which I won't remember later.

Badvoc, yes, you can set up your regular outgoings as scheduled transactions and then YNAB will enter them for you - you still have to clear them manually.

Aha, I can sleep at night again

I'm really impressed with it too. We are just a month into using ynab and for me it is about creating mindfulness as op said already. Looking at our expenditure against our income has made me far more careful about how we spend money. I made a bunch of calls to different companies we have direct debits with and saved ?173 per month!! Not bad for a day's work!

WoW!

Excellent, nsjuly!

The YNAB book is worth a read, it's free as a PDF. YNAB Book

Accounts reconciled Still payments to go out, but all budgeted.

Great lougle - and of course now it's the money in the budget that drives spending, not the money in the accounts. So the fact that the bills aren't due yet doesn't really matter - because the money's allocated in the budget.

Hello, just found this thread. I've just started using it - today so I may be getting a bit ahead of myself - but I have a few questions.

I've got the trial version, can I download it to my iphone too so I can track spending while out and about?

How do I enter income? I've set it up as we are today, ie the balance of our accout, but is there a way to put in income streams in the future? As lougle we have some monthly, some 4 weekly and so on?

I've got more but I'll start with those - if anyone is still using this thread!

Hey Hairy, welcome aboard!

Yes, go to the app store - the mobile app is free. You can use that to enter transactions while out and about.

Income is added as a transaction in the banking screen. You set it as 'income for this month' or 'income for next month'.

You can set both income and outgoings as recurring transactions, using the 'Scheduled Transaction' button on the account tab.

I highly recommend the forum - trawl through it for an hour or two and you'll feel like you've been using it for months. I'm on the forum under the same name as on here - give me a wave

Hello Hairy!

In general you should only budget the money you have on hand, so whilst you can enter future-dated transactions for income, it's not advisable as it gives you more in your 'available to budget' total than there actually is.

I think lougle has set outgoings up so they are categorised based on which pay packet will have to cover them?

Oooh...I didn't think that's what Hairy meant.

I am a goood girl. I never budget money I haven't actually received. What I meant is that you can schedule income in the scheduler, so that when it comes into the account, it's already entered in YNAB for clearing.

So, for example, I set a scheduled income of £200 for 10/09/13, then on 10/9/13, I check the bank account. £200 has cleared, so I go into YNAB, where the scheduler has entered the transaction. I clear it. If it hasn't cleared in the account, then I change the date to a date a few days hence and set it back into the scheduler.

tribpot is exactly right that if you simply enter the future income as a transaction in the main account screen with a future date, it will show in your budget as 'Available to budget'.

tribpot yes, I have my categories set up such that I know which direct debits go on which week, so I can just work down the list allocating money to them, until I reach $0. Then, the next week, I start where I left off and repeat.

Yes, Sorry, I meant what Lougle said. how do I schedule income in the scheduler? I can't find that. I've scheduled transactions but can't find income.

You do exactly the same as a scheduled transaction, except you put the amount as 'inflow' instead of 'outflow'

Ok - I missed your first response Lougle - I've got it, thanks.

I'll download the mobile app now and save the forum until tomorrow. It looks really good and I really need to get a proper handle on what's going on financially!

Enjoy

I'm really enjoying this! (sad I know!) However I have another question. I've been on the forum - seen a few posts from Lougle there but thought I'd ask here first. I agree with whoever said that it makes me feel much richer! I'm not, some categories are very slim but there's something there, it's great!

Reconciling accounts - What actually is this? Does this involve importing transactions from my bank account? Why would I want to do this, is this to check that the budget matches with reality? Also how often should I do this then? Just before every pay cheque?

I've booked in to do a online course but they are at odd times so not easy to do with school runs and stuff.

Reconciling accounts is making sure that your account balance matches YNAB's balance. I reconcile every day.

All you have to do is make sure you put the transactions in as you make them (ie. pop down to the shops for milk and bread - make transaction 'Co-op £3.50, groceries).

If you have your direct debits/standing orders set up as scheduled, recurring payments, then when you go into YNAB each day you can approve those, rather than having to input them.

Then, you click 'Reconcile Account'. A dialogue box comes up asking for the date and the balance of the account. You then click 'Reconcile' and it shows you all the transactions since the last reconciliation and the date you entered, and tells you whether the bank balance matches the YNAB balance. If it does, great - hit 'finish reconciliation.' If it doesn't, it may be that you didn't enter or clear a transaction. Find the missing transaction, enter or clear it, and then reconcile again.

Reconciling just helps to make sure everything is accurate. If you don't enter every transaction then you can't rely on the budgetable amounts and will soon get into trouble with spending money twice.

Yep, very useful for spotting missed transactions. You can also, once the account has been reconciled, choose to hide all reconciled transactions in the account register (click on the button at the top that looks like a lock). This keeps you able to look just at the most current stuff.

Thank you all so much, I realised my problems with reconciling were due to imputing the wrong starting amounts last night so sorted that, and did indeed catch a transaction I would other wise have missed!

So, next question! DH has a blackberry, is there a mobile app for that? He's got it all set up on his work computer so can input stuff that way but he's awful at the day to day spending and it would be really good for him to track it himself rather than his suggestion which is to tell me every time he spends anything! I looked at their support pages but couldn't see anything about blackberries.

No, there's no Blackberry app at present. Thread about it here.

Today's blog post has got some handy reminders in it.

I'm buffered!!!!!! It's taken me years, but I've finally managed it

Congratulations! That must be a great feeling!

That is awesome Minions! Well done!