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 mean the bit circled in yellow? That's just all the money in your accounts added up.

Ah. Yes! Thank you!

I still haven’t got my head around how much I actually need to stand still each month and my income comes in drips too, so it’s more complex. I know there’s a video about it which I’ve seen but I can’t work out.

Categorise it as whatever the refunded item was categorised as.

So if you returned clothes, categorise as clothes.

If you returned something electrical, categorise as electrical.

If it was books and you count that as "fun money" or something, then categorise as "fun money".

HTH :)

We had this too when we first started.

Basically you just want to use each bit of money you get in and cover as much as you can before you'll next get paid. I find putting the due dates of things into the category name helps with this, so I have categories like:

Rent 1st
Phones 11th
Electrity 20th
Internet 30th

etc.

Then food shopping I know that's every Saturday and so on.

If I got some money in today (13th) and know that the next expected inflow will be the 25th, then I make sure to cover the electricity bill, 2x a weekly shop amount, and if the phone bill hasn't been covered because I was short, then I would cover it retrospectively. I wouldn't worry about the internet bill unless I happen to have enough spare - because I know that can be covered by the inflow on the 25th.

That exactly how I do it. I have my Direct Debits split into two batches (income twice per month) and ordered by date. My categories say:

6th - Car insurance - £57

When money comes in, each DD is funded, in order of due date, then groceries, car fuel, etc., then anything left over is split into various categories.

Thanks everyone re credit card refund advice

I read this entire thread when I was signing up for the free trial and found it so helpful!

ive been using it for a month now and have signed up to pay because it’s already saved me more money than the subscription cost by realising there were three (THREE!!) subscriptions coming out of my account each month that I didn’t know about/use so was just wasting money! Have cancelled them all now and hoping I can get everything straight.

the credit cards are the only bit I can’t quite grasp. I have tried a few different ways to add the interest which has been added to my account, but it seems to add it to the “available” number against my credit card - but shouldn’t that available number just be the amount I’ve assigned to pay off towards the credit card balance?

apart from that I love it - so satisfying to go to get food or petrol and know that I have money assigned to it, instead of never knowing what the money in my account really needed to cover!

This is something I've been struggling with too as the interest thing doesn't make any sense to me at all. I'm thinking of just unlinking my credit card because im worried about messing it up!

Add it as a payment to 'name of card' under bank interest?

That’s one of the things I tried, but it now shows that amount as “available for payment”, when it’s not? And my balance for the card is no longer correct.

I’m not using the cards at all, just trying to pay them off over six months so the interest is the only thing making it tricky at the moment.

I don't have credit cards, but I've just done a little try out and this seems to work:

1. Have a category called 'Credit Card Interest' in your budget.

1.. When you have your interest charge, assign it to the credit card as payee, and 'Credit Card Interest' as the category.

1. Assign money to clear the category.

Alternatively, have a category called 'Credit Card' and then don't worry about whether it's a payment for an item or an interest charge.

Both examples here

Last image

Yes - that's what I do. The interest on DH's CC is a bit weird and only comes out once a year or something (??) so I just create a category for it and a goal based on what it was the previous year.

If you're not using the credit cards, can you not just simplify it? Say your credit card debt is £600 and you can afford to pay £100 a month.

Set up a category called credit card and set a target of funding it at £100 a month. On payday, allocate your £100 and pay it off (so in your account page it'll show a payment to credit card of £100).

Any extra bits you acquire through the month, add to that category. Say you have an unexpected refund of £50 - allocate that to the credit card pot. Then on the last day before, payday, pay that extra £50.

So your £600 debt is now £450 (£600-£100-£50). Interest goes on and takes balance to say £475.

You allocate the next months regular £100 and pay it off. Down to £375. Squirrel away another £50 over the month and pay off the day before payday as before.

£475 debt is now £325 (£475-£100-£50). Interest goes on and balance is say £350.

Rinse and repeat.

Very simplistic but a lot easier than faffing about. That's what I'd do.

Are you putting it in as a negative number? Ie in the same way you'd add a purchase? That's what I meant.

I have a credit card, but I'm "only" using it to spread out the cost of dental work out (and eventually do a 0% interest balance transfer) so there's not much activity. I'm using the loan function, and I use the "add activity" button to add the credit card interest or the cost of another bloody filling.

If you are not using the credit card for day-to-day spending I would suggest doing that.

Thanks everyone for the tips! I’ve managed to sort it and hopefully know what I’m doing going forward haha.

my favourite thing about YNAB so far is feeling like it’s ok to spend money when the funds are there waiting. It’s removed a lot of the guilt for me - but also made me realise how much of a mess I’d gotten myself into and how much I was burying my head in the sand when it came to my finances!! There’s a tough few months coming up and then hopefully things will ease up once I’ve gotten things straight.

@Lazydaisydaydream I know exactly what you mean! It's very sobering but also feels so much better to know you're doing something about it, and that whatever you spend, you can afford. Looking at my bank account now is just to confirm what I already know, rather than inspiring a sense of dread, hoping I haven't been too reckless this month and will actually make it to the end of the month...

I wanted to ask what everyone does about underspent categories. Do you roll them over, redistribute, or put the money back into Ready to Assign at the start of the new month? So far I have just been redistributing any leftovers from grocery weeks or planned purchases that were cheaper than I'd been expecting, but I want to make more of a plan. I'm only anticipating it to be small amounts anyway.

Plan:

Directly roll over to the next month: pet-related expenses, clothes & shoes.

Split 50/50 between overdraft and something else (maybe wish list?): haircuts, groceries.

50/50 roll over and something else: eating out.

Everything else is either fixed each month (like bills) or is added to regardless (like dentist).

Also, with random leftover amounts in flexible categories (like £3.72 in groceries), do you take everything down to 0 in the old month and reassign in the new month?

@WouldBeMrMicawber if you had planned to spend it this month and didn't, then assigning it to a debt category is sensible. But equally, you could have an 'unspecified savings' category that you add it to, so that you can avoid going further into overdraft when you have unexpected spending needs. It's all swings and roundabouts.

Completely depends on the category for me.

Some roll over - mostly personal funds, or things that don't necessarily get spent every month but I want to roughly keep our average spend the same (like children's clothing).

Some I just top up to the right amount so I'm putting less in if that makes sense. For example medical I usually keep at about €20 and we don't normally spend all of it.

Some I would take the excess out and scoop it into another category - probably something like emergency fund, overdraft pay off, or some fun category.

Sometimes I just leave it there and use it to cover overspending. Which is probably a bit cheaty, but sort of works!

Well anyway thanks for the prompt as I've gone in and properly reconciled my cash and paypal accounts which were a bit messed up since Christmas

is anyone else a complete saddo and is disappointed when there are no transactions to approve or money to assign.... its my lovely little nightly routine and it's so boring if nothing is going on in any accounts 😁

Yes, me - this is one reason why I make needlessly complicated plans like how to roll over leftover money from different categories!