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.

Wow, we'll done minions! That's fantastic!

I got all ahead of myself today as DH unexpecedly got some work expenses back that we had already paid for (not a lot but it all helps!) so I immediately allocated it to next month and sat there feeli f very pleased with myself that U had started our buffer! However I then had a call from DH saying he has toothache and needs to book a dentist appt and I realised a flaw in my plan. I'd missed rule 2 and jumped straight to rule 4!

We now have a new medical / dental category in the rainy day section with an allocation. It was a good reminder.

I'm finding this way of working really useful if slightly scary to be so aware of what every penny is doing and how far it has to stretch!

It's quite an eye-opener, isn't it? It's unsettling to see that there is £xoo in the account, but £0 available

I've been using YNAB for about 6 months now & it has made all the difference to my finances.

I've gone from ending the month with basically nothing, to having half a months income in the bank & I even have an ISA.
I love seeing my NET worth rise each month

It takes a while to get used to, but can be addictive.

Steam always have massive sales around Christmas time, so YNAB will probably be on sale again then if not earlier.

It really is addictive, isn't it?

Wow, I'm away for a couple of weeks and the thread explodes!

Being a novice I do have a question: I want to be able to account for savings I make without them 'counting' to anything (i.e. save some money in account that isn't for anything specific right now). My reading if the documentation is that I should enter the savings account as 'non-budget'.

If I do, would that mean that anything I pay into it be treated as an expense (one-off or regular) from the budget? Then presumably, if I want/need to spend some of the savings at some point I can enter it as one-off income into the budget account?

Hello again Oberon! Has anyone seen the new iPhone app, btw? I like it a lot, although not the two-colour icon, ho hum.

First of all, I think you know that non-specific savings are generally regarded as A Bad Thing in YNAB. It's much easier to spend 'Non-Specific Savings Pot A' than it is 'New TV' or 'Holiday'. I think it's part of giving every dollar a job. If you really can't think of anything you want to save for, I am once again happy to take a cheque or bank transfer to spend it for you

However, if you do want non-specific savings you can either:

• make a category called 'Savings - General' (or whatever) and allocate cash to it every month in the budget
• have an off-budget account called 'Savings - General' and then move the money out of the budget each month.

NB I can only cope with this if I have a real account to move the funds to, I don't like it if the real account and the YNAB account's balance are different.

Then in the future when you want to spend this money you either:

• budget a negative amount to your 'Savings - General' category, which will free the funds up in the budget to be allocated elsewhere
• transfer money from the off-budget account to an on-budget account, in the category appropriate to whatever it is you want to buy.

Thank you tribpot! I'll bear your kind offer in mind .

I do have some allocated savings categories. Basically, I want to save the money I'm no longer spending on cigarettes (I quit smoking three months ago) so that I can do something useful with it, but can't really think of anything specific to put it towards right now. I just want to save it so that I will at some point have something to show for it.

I do already have a real savings account to put it in (like you, I really want to see the balance figures match). I suppose it could also be an on-budget account with the balance unbudgeted, but I want to be able to save the money and essentially forget about it, so that in a year or so I'll have something tangible to show for it (if that makes sense). I suppose I could always notionally save for something and then change my mind about what I'm saving for!

Well under the circs, it's what you're saving the money FROM rather than FOR that is the most resonant thing about it - so maybe set up a category called 'Cigarette Savings'?

If you want the money to disappear it sounds like you want an off-budget account for it.

tribpot, that's exactly it! Although I don't think it's at all likely that I will start smoking again I do want to see the money I was spending on it accumulating. I can then decide what I want to do with it at some point. This money is budgeted under a 'cigarettes' item (though actually gave up before using YNAB), so I really like the idea of 'cigarette savings' . It's good for me to see it accumulate!

I haven't tried the app yet, but am just debating with myself about if I should upgrade to iOS7 first. I haven't been able to persuade a friend to do it first .

I'm going to upgrade my work phone to iOS7 first so I can see if I hate it on a phone I don't care about :)

Ah, I wish I had that option! I might give it a go later anyway if nobody responds to my FB post asking for people's experiences .

I imagine that I'll probably have to upgrade at some point anyway, and there don't seem to be any serious bug reports on the usual sites. I'll hopefully just get used to the new look!

Well I upgraded and have to say I quite like it. Nothing seems broken so far .

Bumping this thread to note that Mumof3Teens has posted elsewhere the news that YNAB is on sale on Steam again - £14.99 until next week.

Yes offer ends 3rd Dec according to website. We used the trial which finished about a month ago and all our accounts have reappeared now we have bought it. Just need to work out if I can get it on my ipad now :(

I was on this thread ages ago under a diff name and I have been trying to absorb all the ideas and it has helped up quite a bit. I still need to do more reading of it all (the methid etc) to be honest though!!

Just a quick thanks to y'all for making me aware of ynab though :)

I was hoping it would go on sale again. Thanks for letting us know.

Thanks for sale tip! I've been wanting this for a while.

Mumof3teens, there's an iPad app, like the other mobile apps (so allows data entry and limited view of the budget). They are working on a full-blown application for iPad, so you'll be able to manage the whole shooting match from there. But for now you need a full size machine to run YNAB itself.

It doesn't feel like only 3 months since I've been using YNAB. I have to say that this is the first Christmas that I don't shudder when I hear mention of it, not because we have more money, but because we know what our money is going to be doing.

Thanks Tribpot. I have an iPhone app, but the ipad app seems to be just the same app (the same size)?

Yes, that's what I meant, sorry Mumof3. It is the same app.

lougle - I save for Christmas all year now. It's the only organised thing I do about Christmas, admittedly, but it's the most important one!

Jumping on this one as I've just started the trial (good news about steam).

What do people do about regular credit card expenses? I use these for convenience and pay off every month. It's going to take a few months until I can shift to the YNAB way of actually having the money before I spend it as can't magic up double payments so it'll have to go slowly. Just not sure how to budget this. Any thoughts?

YNAB has a video tutorial for handling credit cards.

There is also a step by step guide

Plus a whole help topic on credit cards.

Can you let us know how you get on?

Yes, I think the balance as of today will be listed as pre-YNAB debt, and then the actual expenses that you put on the card this month will come out of the budget. So you'll be carrying a certain amount of pre-YNAB debt until you chip it away from the budget, even if in reality you're not ever left owing money you can't pay.

Alternatively, you could stop using the credit card but then you're going to take a big hit one month before you get yourself even. Maybe set a target. As you see where you can shave a few quid off the budget here and there you can throw all that into your Pre-YNAB debt category and pay it down sooner.

Btw, I use credit cards as well for convenience - I quote often make multiple payments to them during the month to clear them down.

Thanks for bumping this thread! I was halfway through a trial of YNAB, and you've just saved me £15, as I had decided to buy it.

It has already helped me work out what I need to be saving for management fees, car tax etc in February.

I'm nowhere near being buffered though....