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Anyone interested in a YNAB chat/support thread?

990 replies

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 04/09/2021 10:43

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
19
WouldBeMrMicawber · 07/01/2024 13:55

I added my student loan - the repayments get deducted from my salary, so I'll just add that amount then immediately mark it as a loan payment each month. It was meant to be encouraging, but to my horror it won't be paid off until 2031Shock I will start making some small manual repayments when I have spare money to see if I can bring that forward a bit!

@Waterfordaston Did you have any luck with adding the overdraft as a loan? I find it really useful to use the repayment simulator (hence adding the student loan, which was rather sobering).

rainydays1234 · 07/01/2024 19:38

I'd like to join this thread please?

I've just downloaded the app and it seems really good.

Do most of you link it to your bank account?

I'm sure that is good but I was too nervous to, so I said unlinked.

WouldBeMrMicawber · 07/01/2024 19:59

@rainydays1234 I keep mine unlinked because I prefer doing it manually - it makes me focus on it more!

MrsWombat · 08/01/2024 07:29

@rainydays1234 It uses the open banking system to link up so it's perfectly safe. I have the majority of my accounts linked. (The ones that aren't linked are credit union savings accounts so I reconcile them separately) I am more worried about missing a transaction than anything else.

However, I also add my transactions in manually as I spend so it's 99% up to date. When the transactions you've put in match up with what YNAB pulls from your bank there is a "link" symbol and I gamify it by wanting all my transactions to have that symbol. 😅

A few years ago I had the YNAB 4 software but got bored after a while, and I also tried the app version when it first came out. Neither lasted long and I think it was because of the tediousness of having to input transactions all the time. Now I don't have to input them, I do it religiously. 🤔😅

BertieBotts · 08/01/2024 10:43

Sorry I just realised I never came back to post my overdraft method!

I think it is probably the same as the one mentioned on reddit but this is what I did.

I looked at the overdraft limit and looked at the balance of the account over the previous few months.

Let's say the limit was £500 but I never went more than about £370 into it. Let's say on the day I set it up the account balance was -£150.

I created a dummy "tracking" liability account called "Bertie Overdraft" based on what YNAB calls a line of credit. I created this with a 0 value.

I then transferred £400 from the Overdraft account to "Bertie Bank".

This means that I now have £400 "float" in my bank, but it's a positive number overall - the bank balance looks like £250.

I created a category called "Pay off Overdraft" (target: £100)

It has to be a round number, because when you're reconciling an account with overdraft, you have to manually subtract the amount from the dummy overdraft from the balance to ensure that the numbers match up.

The reason for doing this is that it gives you a floor. I could budget all of that £250 and know that my account would not go below -£400. Whereas if you're doing the "budgeting into the red" method, you have no floor and you could potentially just get more and more into that overdraft by telling yourself "but this is an essential purchase!"

Over time, any spare money I had I put into the "Pay off Overdraft" category. When I had built up £100 in there, I made a transfer from the "Bertie Bank" account to the "Bertie Overdraft" account. Because the Overdraft account is tracked, not on-budget, it shows up as a transaction and needs a category - categorise as "pay off overdraft".

Now with YNAB's debt tracking feature you can even set it up as a loan type account with min payment 0 and set up the interest but I don't recommend doing this, because it will automatically add interest calculations on and it's a pain because you want it to be a round number. Plus the interest should come through as a named charge to your main bank, so you ought to know what it is costing you anyway. But if you want to know what the overdraft is costing you, you can do this and just delete those transactions/move them to the main bank and then match with the actual fee.

Once the overdraft got to 0 on YNAB I closed the account on YNAB while leaving the overdraft facility in place on my bank in case of emergency. So far, we haven't needed to use it except when it's gone negative by accident - then I ask DH to do a transfer from his bank. Still have DH's to do but we'll get there!

BertieBotts · 08/01/2024 10:53

I started off unlinked. I linked them later on. I think it helps you get the hang of the software to start unlinked. However, it is much easier to have them linked, especially if you're also tracking transactions from an account you don't have direct access to e.g. I need to ask DH to log into his bank and send me the statement, which is a pain.

When using unlinked, scheduled transactions are extremely useful - in the "add transaction" screen, you can choose a future date, let's say your electricity bill always comes out on the 20th and it's a set amount - you can put in 20th Jan 2024, select Repeat: Monthly, payee, category, amount, and it will then automatically create that transaction for you every month and you just mark it as cleared when it turns up on your online banking. (If you remember cheques, it's like marking a cheque as cleared).

Using the mobile app to log purchases that you make when out and about is also very helpful. I have always done this roughly. If I spent £9.87 and can't remember the exact amount I just put it in as £10. Then when I'm reconciling later against my bank, I change it to the correct amount and it stops me from overspending.

I think you can get lazy with linked though!

Tip for desktop for new users BTW:
If you're using browser autocomplete to get to your budget (e.g. typing "YN" in the URL bar and it automatically takes you to the previously visited YNAB page) this will usually grab the URL for a specific month which means you'll always go back to December 2023 for example.

Instead, go onto your YNAB page, look at the URL at the top - it will probably end with /budget/202401 - this is the date (2024, 01).

Delete the date part so it just ends with /budget/, press enter for the site to reload. Now save THIS url as a bookmark, perhaps one to keep on your bookmarks bar. This will then always show the current month.

JackieWeaversZoomAc · 09/01/2024 11:14

* Insurance Increase Alert *

I renew both car and buildings insurance this month.
I never just accept the renewal quotes, but take a few minutes to run though a comparison website & I'm happy to change if needed.

After being fairly stable for several years my car insurance has nearly doubled and my building insurance is up about 60%. Massive increases.
My insurance catagories are fully funded (of course!) but I'm rolling with the punches to cover these huge increases in price.

BlastedSkreet · 09/01/2024 11:22

Thanks @JackieWeaversZoomAc similar happened to us last year. RAC (our existing insurer) was twice the price of the one we ended up going with, which had similar cover. It was still 1/3 more than the previous year.

JackieWeaversZoomAc · 09/01/2024 11:48

the strange thing this year is my existing provider renewal quotes are competitive with the offers from other insurers. Its an across the board increase rather than a bump in price of an existing policy.

WouldBeMrMicawber · 10/01/2024 11:35

I have managed to mess up somewhere and have £19.98 less than YNAB thinks I should have. It's my own fault for not reconciling since before Christmas - the pending transactions were taking ages to clear because of the bank holidays so I thought I'd wait until the dust had settled, although I was marking off the cleared transactions as they occurred. I've looked back through my bank account and can't find the missing £19.98 anywhere, so have made an adjustment and accepted it as a "fine" for not reconciling regularly enough!

Lougle · 10/01/2024 12:13

I wouldn't do that @WouldBeMrMicawber . I'd hunt it down, otherwise your balances are fiction. It's possible that a transaction has been missed, or a couple of transactions. I'd go back in your statements to the last day the totals matched, then check off each transaction from then onwards.

WouldBeMrMicawber · 10/01/2024 12:38

@Lougle Thanks! I think I've figured it out! I remembered that when I started posting on this thread, I had about £20 more than I expected because a transaction had come out that I had thought was still pending. It seems I was right the first time, and it was still pending, as it was £19.98 and there haven't been any other transactions for that amount since I started using YNAB (and all the others are accounted for). I put the "extra" £19.98 towards my overdraft in December, so I will leave it there and have reallocated some money from other categories to cover it.

Lougle · 10/01/2024 12:43

Oh that's great! It's a real pain sometimes, especially if two transactions add to a round number, because you look for the exact amount, can't see it, but actually it's two transactions that just happen to add up to the amount that's missing.

FranktheElf · 10/01/2024 13:07

Can anyone who has credit cards linked help me out? I bought something on my cc and returned it and have received a refund. It wants me to categorise that transaction but I can't work out what to do with it. It is showing as 'inflow' but I've no idea which category it should be as it's not technically money ready to assign...

Any ideas?

FlowersInTheAir · 10/01/2024 14:14

Hi, I have read (some of!) the thread and I am really interested in getting started.

i have just moved home, i consolidated my debts with a small loan so it was just 1 monthly payment and due to the new home my outgoings are a lot higher. DP and I keep our money separate but have a joint account that we will put money in for house expenses. I have £2500 of debt, paying this off at £150 a month so will be paid by next year but really want to get it paid off sooner. Does it sound like YNAB will be beneficial for me? Every month when I get paid I write a budget but just spend spend spend on my card and need to
get a handle on it.

Where can I find a referral? I have looked on the app and seen the free trial then will probably pay monthly. Are there any good YouTube videos I can watch to get my head around it?

thanks!

AddictedtoCrunchies · 10/01/2024 15:46

FlowersInTheAir · 10/01/2024 14:14

Hi, I have read (some of!) the thread and I am really interested in getting started.

i have just moved home, i consolidated my debts with a small loan so it was just 1 monthly payment and due to the new home my outgoings are a lot higher. DP and I keep our money separate but have a joint account that we will put money in for house expenses. I have £2500 of debt, paying this off at £150 a month so will be paid by next year but really want to get it paid off sooner. Does it sound like YNAB will be beneficial for me? Every month when I get paid I write a budget but just spend spend spend on my card and need to
get a handle on it.

Where can I find a referral? I have looked on the app and seen the free trial then will probably pay monthly. Are there any good YouTube videos I can watch to get my head around it?

thanks!

Search for the Nick True videos on YT. I followed him step by step when I was setting up and it really helped.

I dont think you can pay monthly for YNAB but you can set up a pot for it and fund monthly ready for next year. I did and mines all ready to pay on 7 February.

Took me a while to get the hang of it but now I'm in total control.

Lougle · 10/01/2024 17:34

FlowersInTheAir · 10/01/2024 14:14

Hi, I have read (some of!) the thread and I am really interested in getting started.

i have just moved home, i consolidated my debts with a small loan so it was just 1 monthly payment and due to the new home my outgoings are a lot higher. DP and I keep our money separate but have a joint account that we will put money in for house expenses. I have £2500 of debt, paying this off at £150 a month so will be paid by next year but really want to get it paid off sooner. Does it sound like YNAB will be beneficial for me? Every month when I get paid I write a budget but just spend spend spend on my card and need to
get a handle on it.

Where can I find a referral? I have looked on the app and seen the free trial then will probably pay monthly. Are there any good YouTube videos I can watch to get my head around it?

thanks!

You can pay monthly. This is my referral link, but I'm sure others would have one too, and would be happy to share https://ynab.com/referral/?ref=c3P3MAO3bvNTPAzh

YNAB

Working hard with nothing to show for it? Use your money more efficiently and control your spending and saving with the YNAB app.

https://ynab.com/referral?ref=c3P3MAO3bvNTPAzh

Lougle · 10/01/2024 17:49

FranktheElf · 10/01/2024 13:07

Can anyone who has credit cards linked help me out? I bought something on my cc and returned it and have received a refund. It wants me to categorise that transaction but I can't work out what to do with it. It is showing as 'inflow' but I've no idea which category it should be as it's not technically money ready to assign...

Any ideas?

@FranktheElf If you paid for the item using the credit card, and assigned money to it from your available budget, then if you got a refund, it's available to spend again.

Lougle · 10/01/2024 17:50

@AddictedtoCrunchies mine is the 17th February. It's all waiting to go. It's great to know it's already taken care of, isn't it?

AddictedtoCrunchies · 10/01/2024 17:51

Lougle · 10/01/2024 17:50

@AddictedtoCrunchies mine is the 17th February. It's all waiting to go. It's great to know it's already taken care of, isn't it?

Definitely!!

Lougle · 10/01/2024 17:54

@FlowersInTheAir I think it will be really helpful for you. The great thing about YNAB is that you don't actually have to commit your money. If you want to put aside bits and bobs to pay off your debt quicker, you can allocate it to a 'debt paydown' category, then if anything comes up that means you can't afford to pay that much you can just switch it to another category. But I think YNAB makes you want to make better choices because you see the true value of the money. It's gutting when you see that you've spent £30 on coffee that could have been spent better, for example.

This is the official YNAB 'get started' video This is the Nick True getting started video

Getting Started With YNAB

New to the YNAB app? We’ll show you how to set up YNAB in a few easy steps, plus how to succeed in managing your money over the long haul. This is everything...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpcampGi3Rc

FranktheElf · 10/01/2024 17:59

@Lougle ah this is the problem, I only just set up YNAB last week and the purchase was just before new year so it was pre-YNAB Confused

Lougle · 10/01/2024 18:08

That shouldn't matter. Does your credit card balance match your balance in YNAB, or is it different?

Penelope1703 · 10/01/2024 20:48

FranktheElf · 10/01/2024 13:07

Can anyone who has credit cards linked help me out? I bought something on my cc and returned it and have received a refund. It wants me to categorise that transaction but I can't work out what to do with it. It is showing as 'inflow' but I've no idea which category it should be as it's not technically money ready to assign...

Any ideas?

I add it back to the credit card as a positive green transaction back into the category that I paid it from eg if clothes if allocate it to 'clothes' rather than 'ready to assign'. Then I transfer that amount from 'clothes' back to ready to assign as that money can now be allocated elsewhere.

Waterfordaston · 13/01/2024 14:49

I have a very daft question;

on the app version on the bit where you can see all your accounts, it has “budget” and a figure. What is that figure? How is it made up?

Ta!

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