Anyone interested in a YNAB chat/support thread?

[OrangeBlossomsinthesun]

Hi,

I wondered if anyone was interested in a YNAb thread to chat about progress and help each other. I've just started the trial period a couple of weeks ago and, although it's quite a steep learning curve I'm really impressed with it.
I'm freelance so it's important for me to track money and be prepared for fallow periods. I had a thread here with some great advice. I'll add it as there are some good links www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/4327812-YNAB-help-for-a-freelancer?watched=1&msgid=110514876#110514876

Anyone up for some YNAB chat/support?

I am trying to put money in to cover some of my true expenses categories, but that really leaves nothing for my goals categories (garden improvements, possible summer holiday etc). It is quite depressing!. Oh yes, absolutely! But I think for me at least it's really early days so I am just going to concentrate on those long term expenses. But yeah it's depressing how long it's going to take me to get any money saved for home improvements and so on.

Just read the price is going up. Can't lie, I'm a bit disappointed because it's going to almost double for me. I'll have a think... I do use it but it's now my most expensive sub (I think) and I never bought in in the first place to a subscription

Yeah I saw that this morning but I'm such a convert I wouldn't be without it now and I have a year to save pretty much. I've only recently started so I don't think it's much of a rise, although I will have to check.

Hi all.
Having thought I was pretty good with money we not long moved into the house that just keeps on giving bills and I'm stressed and struggling to see and keep on top of short and long term spending.
I really like the idea of the ynab I'm just nervous about paying for it.
Can any one reassure me its definitely worth it after the free trial??

I absolutely love it! It's totally changed the way I think about money and spending and debt. But you should definitely watch some videos about the four rules and how to get started. I posted some at the beginning of this thread.
I have already saved back the yearly subscription I would say.

I'm personally of the opinion that it's totally worth it

I had to borrow money from my brother to get through this month which was painful. But next month will be much better.

Me and @katplva will have our budget meeting this week

I'm gutted about the price rise. I originally used YNAB4 (paid for) so was 'grandfathered in' to a lifetime subscription of $45 per year. They are now going back on that, and saying they only promised a lifetime 10% discount - but if that's the case, why didn't the increase the price when it went from $50 to $84. Gaslighting! So legacy customers are hit with a 100% increase for $45 to $90

That coupled with the fact the direct import doesn't work, and the new loan feature isn't great for UK customers, and we're liable to exchange rate fluctuations, on principle I think I'll cancel. I could afford the extra, but I just don't think I get £70 worth of use out of it a year. I'll create a spreadsheet, try a bank account with saving pot functionality or another budget app.

For the yearly subscription $84 to $98 is not that big of a hike. Must be painful for those who were originally paying $50 though!

I was a bit upset/annoyed when I read that here but to be honest there is nothing that works as well (which makes me feel unhappy like I haven't chosen the option that works best for me, but the one option I have) - and ultimately it does save us more than it costs. I tried so many spreadsheets and free apps and none of them worked like this one does. There aren't any banks with savings pots where I live but even if there were, I don't actually think it would be enough now I've got used to this method with a pot for everything. Maybe 2 accounts - one for bills with everything automated and one for spends with savings pots, would work OK. If I ever find something like that that's free, then I might set that up instead.

They have nearly finished direct import for UK banks, BTW. Working on European now.

I only started a few months ago and paid €72 for the year. Next year it will be €86 so that's 1.16€ more a month. I can cope with that fine. I can see if you've had it for years and it's a big increase you might be annoyed though.

I have to say I was totally sceptical about it saving me money because I thought we were pretty careful with money in general. But the fact is our net worth is now trending upwards, whereas in the past we were slowly but surely getting further and further into overdraft and then we'd get a loan to pay it off. It's a pattern I saw with my ex and then when DH wanted to do it as well I was getting flashbacks!

It is a method first so you can definitely do it without the software however for me personally I have ADHD and I have not been able to stick to any other way of tracking before. With spreadsheets I eventually trip myself up and miss something out causing confusion. With this software it all refers back to itself and runs very smoothly, and it has a way of making you deal with mistakes so they don't mess your budget up and make it seem like you have more to spend than you do. That's the function I can't replicate myself. Maybe if I was really really good at spreadsheets!

I also really like the way it pools mine and DH's money so it doesn't feel like there is his and mine, it's just family money and I can do what I want or need with it.

Like I said before you could probably replicate certain parts of ynab by having two accounts, one for fixed expenses which you set up with direct debits and forget, one for variable expenses with various "pots" but often with those banks you have a limited number of pots unless you pay anyway. And due to the exchange rate it's then not normally that much extra just to pay for ynab and then you can have as many bank accounts as you want and it doesn't get confusing.

I've been having a think about the price rise since I got the pop up notification yesterday and I think I'm going to investigate alternatives. I'm pretty evangelical about how amazing I think the YNAB method is. But now I've learnt the method, there's nothing to stop me implementing it elsewhere. Particularly as I'm not using a lot of the premium features.

I also feel like it's a really crap way to treat the loyal customers who have been with them for years. Over on reddit several people have mentioned that Jesse has recently stepped down as CEO (although I haven't seen anything official to confirm this) so I wonder if there is going to be big changes over the coming months.

I think I will be sticking with it as I have only been YNAB-ing for a few months so I am just getting the hang of it now and do t want to lose momentum. Spreadsheets etc have never worked for me before, and I like how seamless and open the YNAB budget is for me.

I can understand that the price hike might be a deal breaker for those who were paying a lot less per month. @marchtothebee if you find any similar and cheaper alternatives please let me know.

There is so much deja vu here from the fairly chaotic Web launch back in the day.

Lots of people reinstalling ynab 4 on reddit, including an interesting hack for how to get it free for ten years. I suppose I'm lucky, as I never upgraded, I never got used to nynab or paid the subscription - the one lingering doubt was that by not doing it at launch I'd missed out on what I thought was a cheaper lifetime annual subscription. I'll up the money in my nynab category for when Dropbox integration breaks and carry on.

Aspire budgeting does look interesting though.

I'm quite happpy to pay a bit extra because for me it is just a bit and it's worth it. I used to do spreadsheets but this is much more seamless and easier to use.

Oh, I can see if you're a new user it's not too bad. And I probably wouldn't go to spreadsheets either, even though I'm a spreadsheet nerd.

What I'm finding fascinating is how the messaging is just so ineptly managed, I really thought they'd have learned from the last big screw up. And, thinking about it, I remember hearing how they messed up the ynab3 to ynab4 transition too.

Yeah I can see why older users would be pissed off.

I'm down to 3 days AOM again.

I am investigating Budget with Buckets (I didn't use YNAB4 but from what I've read it sounds similar) but there is lots of discussion about alternatives on the YNAB subreddit, depending on what aspects of YNAB are most important to you.

Ouch. A painful increase. I've been there since ynab was desktop based (should have stuck with using it)

I've got until October next year to make a decision. So far I've saved at least the license cost so it'd be worth it for me but let's see where I'm at next year.

The anger on Reddit though. Eek. And the silence from YNAB...

I don't think 7 odd euros a month is much tbh, I'm quite happy to pay that for the use I get out of the app.

They will just be waiting for people to calm down.

Apparently bank sync for UK and EU is now in beta testing.

I’m not sure if I will use the bank sync even if it happens for us. I quite like the mindfulness of having to enter my spending into the app - it makes me think twice about just tapping for everything. Plus my bank is massively slow about putting through things and has stuff in the ‘pending’ pile for days even though I know they will go through.

@katplva

I’m not sure if I will use the bank sync even if it happens for us. I quite like the mindfulness of having to enter my spending into the app - it makes me think twice about just tapping for everything. Plus my bank is massively slow about putting through things and has stuff in the ‘pending’ pile for days even though I know they will go through.

Exactly the same for me.