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?

Do you have more tbb to allocate into your groceries? How much is available in your groceries? Is it green now?

It's orange and says I need to allocate more to reach my target for the month. I suppose what I have done is allocated only a week. Hmmm.

OK, that's what I had done. I have allocated and moved money from a long term expense now. I'm still in the red though for the time being. I have an invoice coming in at the end of the month and DH will get paid at the end of the month and then I can see where I am for next month.
I can see this is going to take me a little while to iron out my finances. We are still very much paycheck to paycheck. My money is 6 days old though. Making baby steps.

When you say you're in the red, do you mean your bank account or your Assigned? If the later you really should balance it to zero even if it means taking the money from longer term pots. Otherwise you're budgeting with money you don't have. You can fill those longer term pots up when the invoice comes in..

My ynab is in the red. I have assigned more than I have.

The only pots I can take from are things that go out of my account on the first of October. I guess I should do that and then I can adjust when more money comes in at the end of this month.

Number one principle of ynab is that you can't assign what you don't have. Take some money out of other categories. Mine has been terrifying because my water bill was due out and I literally had no money to allocate. I've been robbing Peter to pay Paul this month

Yes, I've had to take it out of the mortgage category as that comes out on 1st October. I will be able to cover the mortgage because DH will be paid by then but I'm still walking the tightrope of zero spare money though. Things will get a little easier from this month in some ways as my earnings have picked up.
Without YNAb though I'd have been thinking I had sooooo much more money than I do.

Maybe that was stupid to put the mortgage in this month actually because it goes out next month. I put the target as for 1 October though?

I think that's where I went wrong. I started my budget with my balance after I'd paid the mortgage on 1 September but I have budgeted for it this month although it doesn't come out again until October.

When I'm a little flush (previous tries at ynab) I've tried to budget for next month bills in in current month.
Definitely sounds like you don't have spare cash to budget for next months mortgage yet

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun

I think that's where I went wrong. I started my budget with my balance after I'd paid the mortgage on 1 September but I have budgeted for it this month although it doesn't come out again until October.

Absolutely. Trying to pay two mortgage payments out of one month's income is a big ask if you're new to YNAB!

It is terrifying to see how much of a knife edge you're on. But remember, you were always on this knife edge, you were just ignoring it. YNAB can help you to acknowledge it and get past it.

Yeah I'm not sure why I did that, it was one of the first things I did so I hadn't really got a handle on how it works. I feel much better now because it means I'm not doing as badly as it seems, I was just trying to do too much with that money without realizing it.
It is all very tight at the moment yes, but as you say, not doing YNAB doesn't change that it just makes it worse because then I don't really know the extent of it and it just gets worse.
I'm learning a lot about how to handle money. It makes me less anxious actually to have a plan.

I used YNAB a few years back and then got out of the habit. When I went back to try it again recently I'd completely forgotten how it worked (I blame menopausal brain fog!).

I want to go back to it but currently have £14k left to pay off from a £50k + debt and that ends in May next year so might wait till then and start with a shiny fresh budget

Will keep tabs on this thread until then though, so please keep it going!

Hello! You could still start now if you wanted. My budget has been super messy and I also have debt.

OK, I have another question.

So, I mistakenly put a couple of things in to budget for this month but they actually leave my account on 1st October. So, now I want to not budget for them this month and assign that money to something else. How do I do that?

Do I just reduce the amount to zero in thos coulmns or move the money? How do i move the money to another category? I did it before but I managed it because I had over budgeted so the programme suggested I move money and the little button came up to move from one to another.

Joining as a recent YNAB convert/addict . Signed up for the free trial in July and paid for my first year's subscription last month. I used to use an excel spreadsheet to budget/forecast but YNAB feels much more intuitive and I just enjoy it so much it feels worth paying for. My focus is on maximising savings and investments on my journey to FIRE.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun

OK, I have another question.

So, I mistakenly put a couple of things in to budget for this month but they actually leave my account on 1st October. So, now I want to not budget for them this month and assign that money to something else. How do I do that?

Do I just reduce the amount to zero in thos coulmns or move the money? How do i move the money to another category? I did it before but I managed it because I had over budgeted so the programme suggested I move money and the little button came up to move from one to another.

If you move forwards into your October budget and edit the targets for those categories it will remove the targets from September, but they will be there ready for next month. Back in September you can then empty the money out of those categories without them going red.

Use a subtract button in the budgeting box so it goes back into your to be budgeted area. Or just keep the bonus that you've already part funded october

OK I just reduced it to zero for those categories this month as it's already a target for the first of the month next month iyswim.
Then reassigned the money to other things.

It is so addictive, I love it. My money is 8 days old!!!!! I am so excited by that.

I have created a category for ynab subscription now free trial ends soon.

Oh that's awesome!

Money is now 9 days old!

I'll join! I've been using it about a year and a half and I think it's brilliant. Definitely paid for itself.

Hooray another YNAB addict! I really love it. I was quite excited to see some transactions come up in my bank today so I could reconcile them hahaha! My bank account is a pain because I can only set debits to clear every two days or when the amount is over 10€. Another reason to use YNAB as my account is often a couple of days out of date.