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?

It does take time in the beginning. Are you in overdraft? Is that part of the issue? I gave myself a dummy account with the overdraft amount in which boosts what YNAB thinks my balance is, and I contribute into a category to pay the overdraft off. When it gets to a round number I do a transfer into that account to clear it. I keep it at a round number to make it easier to reconcile. I've paid off about 10% of it.

No, I can't have an overdraft here with my bank as a self employed person. We won't go hungry or anything but if things don't pick up then I will have to take money from long term expenses which will be disappointing cos it'll be a step back.
I don't have enough to fund more than this month yet but basically there will be month when we only have DH's income and about 200 from me unless things pick up, and that's not enough money.

Happy new year YNABers! I hope things go well for us all financially in 2022!

Things picked up for me in terms of work so that was good. But a lot of expenses at the moment so I'm not sure how much I am progressing. I think I will have to take some money out of long term expenses next month, which is a shame. It's a long slow process. But I have faith that it's helping bit by bit.

Happy Hogmanay! YNAB is definitely a slow progression but I’m glad that I’ve been on it for the last few months. I think (hope!) that 2022 will be the year I get a hold of my true expenses and see what the real story is.

I’d like to go over my end of year YNAB progress but I am a few days behind on transactions etc. Christmas was mad but since then we haven’t been out at all, so it’s kept costs down.

Here’s to a financially healthy new year!

Slow and steady, we'll get there. I've made progress in these few months. I'm glad I did it.

Yes, I won't get a sense of December until a few days into January.

But I've done a review of 2020 to compare with :o

How did you do the review @BertieBotts?

I used various reports and just wrote things down. So did net worth from December 2019 - 2020 and noted how it changed, how much debt we paid off. Then did the spending report (possibly the toolkit one) by category and by payee and noted down anything interesting there. By payee is interesting if you eliminate any category that covers direct debits and just allow categories that are money you spend in actual shops. I did some category checks and worked out who was the most expensive and cheapest family member :o then at the end I wrote a highlight reel of things that affected our money situation that year, so the pandemic, working from home, my new job, we changed our car that year etc.

For comparing I'll probably do stuff like we spent X more at this supermarket but Y less at that one, we ate way more burger king than McDonald's, silly things like that.

I found for spending you need to do Jan-Dec and net worth Dec-Dec because it does from the last day of the month, our balance on 31st Dec is essentially the same as it was on 1st Jan before rent was paid etc.

Hi, I just came across this thread, and signed up for a free trial. At the moment it looks very confusing!
I'll go and look at some of the videos on the previous thread, but if anyone has advice for a complete novice, I'll be happy to hear it!
Also, happy new year to you all!

Happy new year @TheMamaYo and welcome to YNAB! I found it ok to set up the basics, but it was slightly depressing and anxiety inducing initially to see what my financial reality was. But it has definitely been worth it - I don’t earn any more than I did, but I feel much more in control, and I look forward to allocating money to the budget each pay day 😊 Let us know how you get on.

Hello!

It does seem confusing when you first start, but even if you mess up you can just start the budget again. I would definitely recommend the videos. I watched the ones on this thread a few times when I started.

This one is good ww.youtube.com/watch?v=xPVEB759gkU&t=176s

And this is longer but is helpful too www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_HraRdzIHc&t=1967s

Watch this about the 4 rules too

Yes! Don't be discouraged if it all seems a bit bleak when you start out! I'm still finding it slow going but I'm definitely in a better position than I was when I started, if nothing else because I have an awareness of my finances now that I didn't really have.

Basically, you work out a series of categories (YNAB suggests some but you can change them, add more, move them around etc) and when you get money into your account you assign money to those categories. But only when you have money, you don't assign money that you're going to get in the future.

So imagine this month I have to pay:
Mortage 500
House Insurance 120
Car insurance 160
Petrol 250
Food 600
(obviously there will be loads more than this)
And I have 1700 in my account cos I've just been paid.
So I assign that money across each category. It's like envelope budgeting. I can't assign any more money to anything until I receive it. So I can't assign more money until i get paid again.

As part of the categories, you work out your long term expenses. So, things you know will come up, but not every month. Maybe it's only twice a year. I have to pay rates of 220 twice a year, so I split each payment into 6 and put money in that category each month, so when the time comes I have the money ready and don't end up scrambling about and putting it ona credit card or whatever.

It takes a while to work out all your long term expenses, and for me they are the key to getting control of my finances.

Hiya! My first tip is to understand it's a virtual version of the old fashioned jam-jar method.

Yes, it's digital envelope budgeting

Thank you! This is helpful already.
Just starting to input some stuff now. Do you just set up a category for business expenses too?

If you run a business it's usually recommended to have a second budget set up for the business (you can swap between them).

If you mean reimbursable work expenses, a category works for that.

Yes, I'm self-employed and have a separate business budget.

I'm currently shopping around for house, car and life insurance as mine are coming up for renewal. Hoping to reduce some of my monthly outgoings a bit.

Electricity bill for December was another 100e on top of the 100 more last month, so nearly 300 instead of nearly 100. Fuuuuck. Have had to empty all my long term expenses categories to cover it and even so I think I'm going to have to use the credit card again soon because I know have a hole coming up in my finances to do with invoicing cycles and will only get about 1700 in total between DH and I at the end of this month.

And, traditionally February is dead for me work wise. I'm having 10 days off in February because it's normally slow and my brother is hopefully coming out to visit. It will be the first time I've seen him in 2 years and he's bringing his girlfriend so we can meet her. Which is all lovely, but because I'm self employed I won't earn anything then.

Gah.

Its so tough @OrangeBlossomsinthesun
I sometimes think the kind of budgeting with savings and goals is for people with more money coming in than I do.

Yes at the moment it feels a bit like one step forward and two steps back. But..... I would be in an even bigger mess without this. It's going to take me a while to get on top of long term expenses. Which is a bit depressing. But I think I will get there. Just really slowly. Savings are going to take even longer. I am just concentrating on getting a handle on what I really need every month to cover everything and gradually get rid of the credit card.

Hello YNABers.

I'm a huge fan - I'm 16 months in.

I agree it's a steep learning curve and I got a tad obsessed in the early months.

But now I've done over a full year cycle Im really feeling the benefits. Annual true expenses are covered before they even are due. Got funds set aside for emergencies, holidays etc.

When I started I had some CC Debit & was overspending every month. Now I am fully funded, have a huge handle on spending and have much less anxiety around money & spending.

I'm trying their 30 day no spend/ no eating out challenge & trying to eat mostly out of the pantry items & spend less on groceries this month. Love the challenge.

Hi! That's encouraging! Sometimes I worry that I just don't earn enough. I think I do probably... Just about. But that it just takes a long time to get on top of the true expenses. They are what I am really struggling with, but I imagine that is normal less than 6 months in.