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?

Me and @katplva have our monthly budget meeting tomorrow night I think that's ace the way you are doing it together!

[quote Justanotherquestioner]@OrangeBlossomsinthesun I cross posted with you and didn't see your post. Sounds like you've had a good month.

In fact, we all have. I'm also alarmed at my groceries category. I'm going to separate it into groceries and random shop stuff (alcohol and crisps) because too many trips to the little shop has done it[/quote]
I think it's been a good start. Slowly but surely I think is the name of the game.

I find that I top up too, for fresh stuff and also extras. DH has bought beer a couple of times but then tends to get bits and pieces as well iyswim. I've said why doesn't he get more beer with the weekly shop so he doesn't have to go out midweek.
I think I could up my game a bit on my meal planning too. Or maybe instead of popping out for bits, do a kind of mini stock take/plan midweek and go to the supermarket and get what I need iyswim?

The budget meeting keeps me focused. We've known eachother a long time so sharing financial info is ok as far as we are concerned.

This thread, I'm finding, is also helping.
It's half term this month though so I only have 3 weeks of income unfortunately

Happy new YNAB month! Hope you’re all doing well. My age of money is now 13 days so it is going up, albeit slowly. I’m still hanging on to the hope that by this time next year I will be more financially sorted (even if not quite a millionaire).

Half term itself can be quite expensive Just. I have a holidays category to cover stuff we wouldn't normally do.

I was up to 24 days AOM by yesterday but am back down to 16 days after multiple transactions of things going out today like mortgage and so on.

I wanted to ask a question, maybe someone can help.

I have my home budget for the family and then I have another budget for my business. My home budget is based around our personal accounts with Caixabank and then my business account is based on the account my freelance earnings are paid into, with Openbank. I'm a freelance translator so don't have any expenses really compared to other businesses, mostly tax (quarterly) and some software and professional associations and so on.

I've been doing this: www.youneedabudget.com/calling-all-freelancers-and-small-business-owners-heres-a-simple-way-to-make-sure-you-get-paid/ to track my invoices. But I want to reflect that the bulk of those invoice then disappear into the Caixabank as earnings, leaving the tax and other small expenses in Openbank.

I can't work out how to categorise the transactions for the earnings leaving openbank. Do I need to put my Caixabank account in there (and just ignore the balance as that's reflected in my other budget)? I did have it in there before but got really confused and removed it. Maybe it will only work if I put it back in?

I think the answer must be with categories but I can't work out how to do it. Do I need an earnings category and keep adjusting it for each invoice?

Hi all, I'm a long term YNAB user. Back on YNAB4 for last two years as it works better for me as not in debt and like walled months. I can't remember how to use NYNAB but I remember some decent features in it! Do people think the API will change at some point then? I have so much info in mine!

I think I'd make a category on the business budget called "Salary" (or wages or pay or whatever) and categorise outgoings there, as you're essentially paying yourself so it's like staff/employee costs, just to yourself rather than to someone else.

Do I understand correctly that clients pay you into OpenBank and then you transfer the net amount (after deductions which you're withholding) into Caixa?

OK so taking the example from that article.

Say you recieve €1500 on an invoice. You categorise it as ready to assign. Then you'd assign €500 to the taxes and insurances category, whatever is needed to your internet bill/software subscription/etc (BTW, I bet you can class YNAB as a business expense - accounting software!) and the remainder into your "Salary" category, which is then the amount you tranfer out to your normal bank.

@BertieBotts

I think I'd make a category on the business budget called "Salary" (or wages or pay or whatever) and categorise outgoings there, as you're essentially paying yourself so it's like staff/employee costs, just to yourself rather than to someone else.

Do I understand correctly that clients pay you into OpenBank and then you transfer the net amount (after deductions which you're withholding) into Caixa?

Yes, that makes sense. Yes, I get money into Openbank and then use some of it to pay myself into the caixa.

It's things like these that take a bit of thinking for me.

BTW, I bet you can class YNAB as a business expense - accounting software! No, in Spain I can only deduct a percentage (or all) of VAT on certain expenses and there is no Spanish VAT on my subscription so it's not deductible.

Loads of movement on my account today, now down to 9 days. But I see I managed to carry over about 65 euros because I had budgeted some money to credit card debt but forgot that I had already paid it when I set up the budget in September and it doesn't go until the first of the month so it rolled over.
I really really like ynab. It's kind of what I have been trying to do in my head or on paper for years but it always got too complex.

Absolutely, I cannot keep that many categories running in my head at all. There were loads when I first started setting up my budget, and I have added a few more over the last few weeks too that I had initially overlooked.

Well done on carrying over money at the end of the month, I would love to be able to do that soon.

Ah that's annoying.

Month rollover went better than expected here too. We spent €190 in total in August on takeaways! But that's the month we had a baby, so I think not entirely uncalled for.

(One annoying quirk of DH's credit card is only getting a statement once a month).

I'm wondering whether to remove the credit card and just have a category called credit card debt until I pay it down. It didn't calculate the interest correctly this month so I had to do an adjustment to reconcile it.

Hmmmm. If you are very sure you won't spend on the card, could you set it up as a tracking liability account? You'd have to input the interest manually, but you'd be able to see your progress. Set up a category in your budget for "loan repayment", budget it, then do a transfer to the liability account.

If you think you're going to spend on it at any point I'd stick with it set up as a credit card. Ynab is designed to handle debt and spending on credit cards, but only if you use it as intended.

I think maybe ynab thinks the interest is lower than the rate I have in this credit card. Your suggestion sounds a bit complex for me so I think I will stick with it and just adjust when I reconcile.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun I must be approaching my credit cards differently to you. I'm gonna think on this and work out what I actually do after another coffee

I didn't think YNAB handled interest at all? I've always had to adjust the balance manually for interest on all loans/cards/overdrafts etc. I have a category called fees and interest which I put anything like that in.

@BertieBotts I do the exact same.
So currently last month I budgeted a couple hundred in the interest rate category. When interest was charged to my credit card I inputted it as a negative transaction and assigned it to the interest category. That way, when I budget to my credit card, I know it is taking away some of the capital debt rather than just treading water. If that makes sense

So I paid 16.75 capital off my credit card debt last month. I also had about 50 in things I bought on my card plus about 150 in interest. At least I know it's gone down, even if only a little

I'm going to be quite honest and say I don't really understand credit cards and interest rates. The one I have a debt on (2050€) has TIN of 16.68% which according to google is nominal interest and a TAE (APR) of 18.02%. I did a good bit of research a while ago and they are low rates for Spain. The other card I have that I no longer use if I can't pay it off immediately has an APR of about 30%. It's the one that I have to use as a debit card but it's not really a debit card so it's really annoying cos transactions take days to appear. It means for instance that I' haven't been able to reconcile that account for 18 days because there is always something that hasn't cleared.
I got into trouble before with it so now never ever let it roll over. It took me a while to get to that point but I managed it earlier this year.

I have searched for a 0% interest card to transfer the 2050€ debt to but they don't exist here. There was one, a Barclaycard one but it doesn't exist any more.

I think i will just make sure I keep paying it down and just adjust in YNAB each month.