Please help me use YNAB

[slowsloth]

I've just started the 2 month free trial and I'm embarrassed to say that I'm having trouble figuring it out

My main confusions are...

Should I add £50 for the property leasehold rent category because it's £60 per year due in two months time so then next month I'd add an extra £5 to that category? Is that how it's supposed to work? I've watched a video and I'm still confused, I'm usually so good with things like this.

I'm also having trouble entering when I've spent money. For example we usually budget £60 per month for petrol, we've filled up once this month and it cost £28. We will probably need to buy more petrol before the end of the month. I've added £32 to my petrol sub category but I can't figure out how to tell the app that I've spent money. How would I tell it I've spent £20 on petrol to leave me with £8 in the petrol category which I'm presuming will roll over to March budget? I'm so embarrassingly confused

We already have a spreadsheet with how much each bill is each month and any non monthly bills are broken down into how much it'll work out at per month, like my leasehold example above. My DH thinks that the whole YNAB idea is a waste of money so isn't enthusiastic about helping me get my head around it. My argument is that we may over budget everything by a few £ knowing it'll add up for unexpected events but I want to know exactly how much is extra and how much is set aside for x, y, z bill. It may be accounted for but may not go out for another few month.

Ive just noticed how long my opening post is, sorry all

Basically my questions are...

How do I add a recurring transaction, eg monthly mortgage direct debit?

And how do I deduct from a category after having spent?

I've been in the help section for both but can't work it out.

For the leasehold rent, you can add what you like as long as you have the £60 in 2 months time. if you have enough money this month to allocate £50 and then £10 next month, then that is fine. Or £30 this month and £30 next, £20 this month and £40 next, whatever suits.

If you have added money to your petrol budget, then when you spend it you add a transaction.

For example, I have £50 in my petrol category. I put £25 of petrol in the car last night so this morning, I went into the app on my phone, clicked on current account, and clicked Add Transaction at the bottom. Then entered the details. It then deducts it from the £50 allocated to that category.

I can't remember how to add a recurring transaction as I can't do it on my phone, I need my PC and I'm not at home at the moment. I will update later if no-one else answers first!

MickeyLuv Thank you so much. From what you've typed I've managed to do it. I couldn't work out how to deduct and was confused about 'payee' when in transactions. I thought transactions meant just moving between accounts. I thought I was in the wrong place but have played around since you said it was transactions and have worked it out. I even found the recurring transactions on my phone app. I'm on iOS and it's the option under the date.
I think that because of already having a system in place it was difficult thinking a different way and the app is great but I thought it'd be more self explanatory

I just wanted to add to this that some apps might be different but in the YNAB app for iPhone it's really easy to add recurring transactions.

When you add a transaction there is a field fifth down that asks "repeat". The default is "never" but you can change this to whatever you need it to be.