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?

@JackieWeaversZoomAc I also have a ‘new perfume’ category! I love a certain scent for each season, so as my treat I’m saving every month so that I can get a new bottle every so often.

I am still in the end of month scrabble too! Feels like a nice challenge though to make it through till Saturday without raiding September.

Also it’s a good habit to get into, making the money actually last the month! My next payday is 28th September - so a long one, as you said. So satisfying seeing the money available building up in advance for things I know I will need later. And dreaming of that Summer holiday I am saving up for!

Has anyone come to this in later life or is it better to get to grips with it when younger for budgeting etc ?

I think it´s great if people can learn about it earlier, but I am just glad I found it.

I am still struggling massively with money but it is basically because I haven´t been earning enough. The industry I work in has been hit by AI and so, no matter how carefully I budget, I am getting into debt because my income can´t cover my outgoings.

But I have an interview in a couple of weeks and think i stand a good chance of getting it. It´s enough to cover my outgoings and will increase slowly. So hopefully I will get it and I can actually start budgeting and saving and not just managing debt.

I'm in my late 30s and haven't been using it that long. It is genuinely life-changing. I've actually bought a bunch of Xmas gifts I saw on sale because over half the money for Xmas is already sitting aside, so I don't have to wait to afford gifts till Nov/Dec, the money is there when I need to guy something! Also I've booked some Xmas events, again out of the Xmas event pot that has been building up money every month.

The learning curve is steep but when it clicks it will totally change the way you view money and make decisions.

The old me would have seen we have X in current account at the end of the month and gone 'Woo spare money!' And spent on god knows what. But there is no 'spare' money. All the money in there has a job and is assigned to something, so I know if I spend it, I'm taking money out of something that I will need to pay for in the future, and that is off-putting. I don't use my bank balance to make decisions now, I use my YNAB budget.

I started with YNAB (and budgetng a bit more formally than juggling in my head) in my 50's! Its never too late to start. But if I had started early, say in my 30's like @Clefable I would no doubt be in a much better financial position overall.

As you can share YNAB now I'm trying to get my 15yo into it - she has her first part time job 7 while she doenst earn much at all I'm gently teaching her the basics.

Happy rollover day everyone!

😂 Thanks @Clefable ! I’ve been hanging on a couple of payments till today to make them fall in the right month - CC paid, music teacher paid, age of money 11 days 😬😁

Haven’t RTFT so sorry if this has been covered but how much is it?

I can see they do a free trial but I can’t find prices after that. I like the idea of it but worried it’s another cost I can’t afford!

About £84 a year or £13 a month if you pay monthly. I actually have a YNAB sub line in my budget

There is a free similar one called Budget with Buckets. It doesn't have as many features and the app isn't really functional (last I looked).

Thanks for the info, am definitely going to look into it.

I’m so fed up feeling overwhelmed and depressed about money, would be nice to feel in control.

The 34-day free trial is quite good to get your head around the basics. Then people already using it have referral codes which, if you use, give you and the referee a small discount (can't remember how much). Here is mine https://ynab.com/referral/?ref=M1yh3-POcR992Zaa&utm_source=customer_referral

Me too!

I have a question. Just in the last couple of days, when I add a transaction of money coming in, it appears in my account balance at the top but there is no transaction line in the list of transactions, only the debits.

So, say I have €100 cleared and I add an inflow of €100, my balance changes to €200 but I can´t see the details of that transaction anywhere on the list.

But only with the details for my account. With my husband´s account I can see the transaction

Have you checked that you don't have a filter set? It's really easy to have searched for 'outgoing...', forgotten about it, and then you won't see any income.

Yes, whenever that happens to me it's because I've accidentally set the filter to something!

Oh I don[t know. I have actually done a fresh start today anyway as loads of things have changed recently so I am reorganising all my categories. Had a job interview today (currently freelance and struggling massively with variable income and just not enough income) hopefully I will get it and start this autumn and be able to get a grip on finances once and for all.

I've been using YNAB for years but somehow fell off the wagon and made a fresh start on 1st August. It makes such a difference in my spending habits.

We had a £570 MoT bill today and to my utter amazement the money is sitting there in the car maintenance fund and it will make no difference to our month's spending! Before this would have necessitated moving money around, maybe going into emergency funds, and living quietly for a month or two, but the money is there and earmarked so I can pay it and just carry on. Can't believe it!

@Clefable its like special money magic isnt it??

I keep 0% balance transferred offers at the moment. I've used them in the past many times, but I have no use for them now. I do use CC but pay it in full every month and YNAB catagories are looking pretty good.

Hello, I'm tentatively dipping my toe in, as I need to start being more intentional with my budgeting again. The last time I did this properly was when I had an ancient pirated windows copy of YNAB4, but I'm liking the idea of having it on my phone and the auto bank downloads to help with reconciling.

I downloaded the app a few days ago, and I think I've sorted what I need to sort for now with what's left in my account. I get paid on the 15th of every month so I'm going to work out what I need to do for that. I think I'll need to allocate the first half of November out of October's pay too?

Yes, you'll need to cover anything due before about the 18th, in case the 15th is a weekend.

If you have access to a computer, the web version is so much easier to do stuff on. I think there's an official way to make goals etc linked to a date, but I just put the date that monthly things are due in the category name, so it's like

💡 Electricity 22nd
🏠 Rent 1st
🎵 Spotify 15th

etc. I put them in order to make it more neat :D

I think according to the YNAB philosophy, the end goal is to cover all of November with that payday that you have in October, which you do by gradually covering just one more thing in the following month, each month. But you might want to focus on other goals first such as building up an emergency fund, funding "true expenses" (e.g. your yearly bills) - which are always harder when you first start because you're already part-way through the year - and paying down debts etc.

In total honesty I still have not got "a month ahead" - DH gets paid on 25th, so I cover 90% of the bills up to the 26th, plus the first 1-2 weeks of food shopping, using his pay, then we get child benefit - higher than UK - in on the 7th-10th (ish) so I cover the last couple of bills and the rest of the month's food budget with the child benefit, if there's not enough and the last Saturday is after the 26th, then I leave it until payday.

There is one big bill (€270 loan repayment) which comes out after DH's pay which I tend to just cover on payday that same month, rather than trying to cover it with the month before. I don't know if I will skip ahead with that one! It just feels like such a big chunk of money that is better used in the overdraft clearing or emergency fund. We have about 18 months left on it so we'll see I suppose.

@BertieBotts Thank you! I'm going to have to play it by ear for a few months I think.

I've closed my Plum account because random money disappearing won't work with YNAB. The small amount that was in there I've removed and split between my future fully funded emergency fund, the groceries and petrol I know I'll need before the 15th, and a small buffer I have.

I had a free Starbucks yesterday from points I had forgotten about. 😎

How does everyone organise ad hoc term-time only stuff?

Some of our sports and music lessons helpfully have a monthly direct debit all due on the 1st of the month so I have collated them into one category for funding. Nice and easy.

One sports club has a small weekly sub but is barely term time only and doesn't run during the summer, so for now I think I will work it out manually each month. Maybe use the summer months to add the membership fee due next September and work it out annually from then?

Scouts subs are the ones being a pain. Two different groups, and are due the first month of each school term. (September/January/April ish) Do I just add it all up into a yearly fee, divide by 12 and hope for the best? At the moment I've put it as a target due in January for the next lot of subs.

There are also a lot of camps and trips done via scouts that although are expensive are good value for money for what the kids get to do and get out of it. One of my many reasons for trying to get ahead with YNAB is that I've always got a spare deposit around for the next jamboree.