Yolt or Starling or Ynab?

[OfficerGrant]

Hi I really need to take control of our money. DH likes to use credit cards and pay them off.
I used to use Ynab (you need a budget. Com) when I had a job. I've been a sahm for 4 years and feel like I need control of spending, plus I am applying for jobs, so I will hopefully have an income soon.

We have quite a few thousand of debt to pay off.

I could open a Starling bank account. But that wouldn't give me visibility of all our spends. Am considering a joint account for bills as currently all comes out of DH bank account. Starling don't do joint accounts yet.

I'm not happy using yolt yet until the API stuff has started, as I'm not giving them my bank logins. No way José!

But I also can't be arsed entering all the data manually into Ynab. And it costs about £50 which is annoying.

Pleas can anyone advise on how you manage your family finances? Coz ours need an upgrade!

Thanks

Basic spread sheet with all incoming and outgoing goings finstead. 3 months bank statements to see exactly where your going wrong and where you might be frittering money.
Change any utilities to cheaper tariffs where needed.
Set a realistic household budget for food.
Can anyone of you debt be switched to 0%. Do a soft search on mse to see if you can.
Set realistic standing orders for your repayments above the minimum as much as possible.
Any left build a small buffer fund.

I've just got Starling and I'm using it for my share of spending money after bills - I like it because I can see in real time what I have and make a decision to spend based on that.

I also use their savings goals and have 14 set up for various things e.g. holiday, house insurance etc so I'm not hit with the huge bills- but I back this up with a spreadsheet so I know how much to put in each month to hit the goals.

DH has a separate account for his own spending with his old bank.

We then have our main joint account with all the direct debits coming out of it - I use a spreadsheet so I know what these are and add 5% in case (and this goes into savings if not spent at the end of the month).

Then we also have a Barclays joint account for petrol and groceries- I like it cos the app shows pending transactions in real time too. Money in here is maximum spend for the month so we have to keep an eye on it.

I've tried budgeting apps but I can't be arsed adding everything on there. Basic spreadsheet with bills etc on and work from there.

I thought this was a baby name thread. I wish it was.
Sorry, not helpful.

Lol temporary

Thanks coffee yes that's what I want our set up to be like. I think I'll open a starling bank account. See if that gives me the analysis I want. And I think starling has an API thingummy set up with yolt already. I tweeted ynab and they have zero plans to do API links from banks.

Oooh I might check out Yolt to go with my Starling!

Starling gave me £2500 overdraft just like that though- all online signed nothing!

I reduced it down to £100 just for any accidental things but £2500 too easily tempting!

Gosh that is alot of money. You must have a good credit rating. I checked mine for free with noddle and was surprised how good mine was

found this as have just downloaded the Yolt app.
It wants my membership number, passcode and security word from my bank account !
Are they serious? If i disclose that information and it gets into the wrong hands surely they can empty my accounts ?!
I've emailed Barclays for their advice / recommendation.

Why is starling better than any other bank account?

Just had a look at Starling, interesting - like the money pots idea etc..
However we mostly use our credit card as we get store vouchers from it, so wanted a financial tool like Yolt to see where we in real time every day, not just at the end of the month when the credit card bills come in.

Yep at the moment yolt works by accessing your bank account from your login info. There's no way I would do that. Plus it's probably in the bank account t&c not to disclose them.
However there's a new thing that's just gone live in February - API which is basically the banks are obliged to provide a secure data feed of your transactions to another banking provider. Ie yolt. And from reading all the info I think starling and yolt have already got this set up.

Ynab have zero plans for API links in UK so that's a no go for me.

You can always download a text file from your bank account and enter it in to Ynab. Not sure if yolt does this too.

thanks - so if yolt has the API they shouldn't need my log in details?

From starling I think that's right.

I love YNAB. I manually enter everything and enjoy doing so. I have never paid for an App in my life but I did the 60 day free trial and it was life changing and well worth the price I cannot recommend it enough.

mickeymacca how does YNAB work with cash?
how do you record what it is spent on? I can't imagine the hassle trying to tally it up (we have a joint account)

I must admit I rarely use cash but when I do I would record it under a broad heading and not drill down too much. Eg I withdraw £30 for eating out I would record it under eating put category but if I had change from that and spent it on a lipstick I wouldn't bother recording that separately if that makes sense. If you use cash a lot I still think it could work.

thanks, i'll have a good look at it. really need to work out where our money is going each month!

It sounds like you need a budget then
Give the ynab free trial a go it really makes you think and be in control of your spends