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 have a gazillion savings accounts.

Thanks to YNAB I currently only use 1 "rainy day" one which is on budget. (The others currently have £1 in them) My aim is to put a small portion a month in the rainy day account for Christmas and true expenses to get a bit of extra interest in the mean time. However, what is in there is included in my budget and what is in there doesn't match what I've got in those categories. In my YNAB brain they are the same as my current accounts. If I can see my current account going into the red shortly (you can see this on the web) I'll move the money over. (December I'm looking at you)

I have a tracking accounts as well but it's not linked to the budget. They are investment funds which I could technically use if I needed to in a proper emergency but I have no plans on doing so. Having them included on my net worth makes me feel richer than I am. It's easier to have them as tracked and off budget because they are investments the value can go up and down.

I don't track my private pension as I can't access that at all. I've promised myself if I ever get a 3-6 month emergency fund sorted I'll consider it so I can start dreaming of being an everyday millionaire.

Having actually read through the links, the one I linked isn't as helpful as this newer one:

https://support.ynab.com/en_us/category-balances-versus-account-balances-an-overview-ryvnKB_Ac

The TLDR is "YNAB doesn't care where your money is". 😀

But also, you can't decide whether you can spend money unless your budget matches your accounts 😊 If you don't have your budget match your accounts, you could have £50 in your main account, £100 in your savings account and £250 in your second savings account. When YNAB tells you that you have £400 available to budget and you get your card declined for spending £75, you'll get a nasty shock.

@BertieBotts@Lougle@MrsWombat

Thanks all! I used the tracking method for my savings accounts and I think it will be perfect. Maybe in the long run I'll keep things mostly in one account, but I'm so used to having to protect money from my own impulsive spending habits that I'd rather put it to one side for now. Also, maybe one day I'll have enough in there to get a decent amount of interest!

The one-off bill thing is also sorted - it was a change in internet provider, so there's going to be one half-bill from the old provider before the new one kicks in. I've just allocated enough to cover both into the internet category in Bills and will specify Provider 1 and Provider 2 in Transactions.

I can't believe how useful YNAB is. I've been playing around with the Payoff Simulator for debts and it's fascinating. I wish I'd done it years ago!

I am filled with the zeal of the newly converted and have convinced DP to make a budget as well!

YNAB has also already encouraged me to make a better choice than I usually would - I realised I had an extra £20 in my bank account as a purchase I thought hadn't gone through yet actually did a few days ago, so instead of just thinking "Great, free money" and spending it immediately or hoping it would be "left over" at the end of the month (never is), I put it towards my overdraft as an overfunded allocation. It's so motivating to be able to see things laid out so clearly and holistically.

That December Monday morning feeling when you've reconciled all the weekend spending, and all the 1st of the month direct debits that have come out today, and you think you're YNAB broke until your next payout, and even groceries is currently zero although you know you can WAM from Petrol.

Then you find there is £100 still unspent in the Christmas budget. 😍

Ah love that feeling @MrsWombat

I’m going to be WAM ing all over the place the next few days as I overspent the Christmas shopping budget this weekend. But I have some categories (petrol is one!) where I am well padded and can absorb some damage.

My age of money is now 35 days. Feels good 😊

My Age of Money has reached 7 days! I know AoM isn't that meaningful if you're paid monthly, but it's still satisfying to see! Managed to overspend on groceries last week, but spent a lot less than usual, so am counting that as progress.

...and by remembering to cancel Amazon Prime before the next payment comes out (as I don't order often enough for the free delivery to be worth it), I am now only 21p short on grocery allocations after my overspending! Is this really me? Feels like I've been replaced by someone with some financial sense!

I am starting on YNAB today!

I have a positive balance on my credit card due to a refund and I can't make YNAB accept this. Can anyone help please?

https://support.ynab.com/en_us/credit-cards-with-a-positive-balance-an-overview-By_H6uzJo#:~:text=Because%20this%20account%20is%20now,that%20spending%20on%20the%20card.

This might help?

Thank you Lougle, I'm sorted now.

Whispering this very quietly but there have been changes at my part-time job, and I might be getting some more hours. I'm also getting a decent cost of living pay rise in my December pay. Is YNAB manifesting for me? 😅

@MrsWombat Exciting! Are you already planning how to adjust your budget?

I read about Wish Farms recently and it sounds very interesting - will definitely set one up at some point!

Oooh fingers crossed @MrsWombat 😁 I got a pay bump in the same mo th we finally paid off the credit card - so I’ve been able to re divert the payments I was making into the holiday fund, and also start properly saving for the DCs uni fees with the raise.

This month I’ve been able to absorb an unexpected £500 medical bill so that DH didn’t have to wait 6months.

Seriously like magic.

I've not thought about YNAB directly yet. As soon as I've got my next payslip for the cost of living pay rise I'll be adjusting the budget with glee. I'll also be getting a couple of months back pay which will help with Christmas.

I don't want to jinx the new job by thinking too hard about YNAB. However I've been making tax, pension and NI contribution calculations today to see how much I might get if my hours doubled. To see if it's feasible to take the job, obviously!

I've been on the right bones of my budget this month, and I've not even done half of the Christmas shopping yet. I'm literally down to just my emergency fund in available to spend. I know available to spend also means permission to spend, and December is the Month Of Spending but I'm still nervous! I'm hoping it's because I'm more aware of what I've really got and not just chucking it on a credit card willy-nilly to pay off in the New Year. Child Benefit goes into my account tomorrow, and pay day is Friday so I'm good to go but jeez!

Me too @MrsWombat . Been WAMming like mad because of unexpected Christmas spends, and because it turns out what I thought I spend on Christmas was an underestimate. I have adjusted my budget for next year, but this month, even though it is only the 11th, I am really very tight on things.

… and though it is payday on 22nd (!) I have to wait till 1st January to spend any of that paycheque. Which will make SUCH a difference this year as usually I overspend in December, then spend January’s pay in the last week of December, then have to live on beans for the whole of January 😂

Not this year 😁

I got paid early as it's December, and the first thing I did was rush to assign my funds! This will be the first full month as I started partway through the last pay period. I cannot believe what a difference it has made to my attitude to money already. I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread.

It's so good to hear everyone's stories! I'm over 2 years in, and I have to say it's transformative even now.

However, knowing what was in the Christmas Fund I've been a little spend happy in December and just had to confront the credit card balances and WAM a little.

Had a budget meeting with DP last week (unthinkable in our old habits!) and we've agreed a new set of priorities for 2024.

Merry Christmas YNAB people :)

2023 - what did you learn and what are you 2024 goals?

I ended the year with some fairly substantial withdrawals from the Rainy Day Fund (to cover financial impacts of a few rainy day life events) and I went over budget on the clothing purchases to cheer myself up. On the positive side I can see that our food spend has remained consistent for the past 3-years. Despite cost of living increases we've been able to adjust what we eat rather than the budget (not living in the UK).

Goals
Replenish the Rainy Day Fund
Reconcile all accounts weekly
Be more savvy on travel spending
Build up my fun budget and clothing budget

Hi all, I have been looking at YNAB and would love some advice to see if it's suited to me if anyone is able to help!

We are in a bit of a mess financially. We have recently input all of our income and expenses into a spreadsheet and it shows that we can cover everything/have a bit left over but of course in reality it doesn't happen that easily.

Our situation is complicated so sorry if this is long. There's me, DH and late-primary school age DD. I work two part-time jobs (full time hours in total) and get paid on 25th and 26th of the month. DH is a contractor in a professional field Monday-Thursday and runs this through his own LTD company, but then he also runs another business Friday-Sunday (think hospitality) which is also another LTD company. This other business is fairly new and cost us a lot to get set up, including a start up loan, personal loan and some credit card usage. It's not very profitable at the moment but we are managing to cover bills and staffing costs month to month.

DH invoice for his Mon-Thurs job gets paid monthly but the amount can vary depending on if he's taken any time off to do bits for the new business. We also have to consider stuff such as tax etc, and always seem to be scrabbling around to pay these big bills.

We also both have quite a bit of personal CC debt on top of this. We manage to cover everything monthly but it's always a case of having to move money around/rob Peter to pay Paul. I find this very stressful as I've never been good with money at all. I was a SAHM for a few years then retrained a couple of years ago, so DH always dealt with the bills etc as it made sense at the time, but we've never changed this since I started working full time again 2 years ago and I have no grasp of what goes in or out household bills-wise.

The long term plan is for DH to leave his Mon-Thurs job and do the new business full-time but it's very difficult to make the switch as we have a significant amount of debt and 0 savings.

We a mid-thirties and always lived pay check to pay check with no savings and I would love to change this. This Christmas has just drilled down how much of a mess our finances are!

Do you think YNAB would work for us? DH is on board but I want to check it would actually work with our complicated situation before I take the plunge

@FranktheElf I think it definitely would! There are a few articles on their site about using it to manage irregular incomes:

https://www.ynab.com/guide/irregular-income

https://www.ynab.com/blog/budget-with-irregular-income

I don't have an irregular income but do get paid partway through the month, and I've found it helpful for managing that - I created category views for before and after payday to make sure that things are covered in the right order.

I started at the end of November for similar reasons - that money I should have was just disappearing. It has made such a difference already!

Thanks so much, I'll take a read of that.

Am I able to link multiple bank accounts to YNAB? For example, we have a joint account which I get one of my wages paid into, my other wage goes into my current account as I have a personal loan which comes out of there and can't change over to my joint account for some reason, and I like to keep a bit extra in there for DH birthday and xmas presents so he can't snoop on what I'm buying him.

DH then has two separate current accounts and then two business ones. Would we actually be able to link all of these? Will adding in the business stuff complicate things too much? His Mon-Thurs job pays our household bills so we definitely need that in YNAB but I think the new business needs to be kept separate as that doesn't fund us at all, it is its own entity...