YNAB newbie

[flippyfloppy]

Hi all
I have just signed up for a free trial with YNAB after hearing people talk about it on here. Can I check for existing users, do you link your bank account to it! I am literally just setting it up, can see it might take a little while!

Yea my account is linked. You don't have to though. I used it for years without linking it.

Mine isn't linked.

I use cash envelopes too so I just manually update the balances all at once.

Thank you. I've decided not to link for now. Just setting up my budget. How do you both find it, is it worth it?

I'm a week into YNAB. I would definitely go for linked, it makes the whole thing so much easier!

Link it!!! We've got 2 accounts and 2 credit cards all linked it's amazing.

The sections I have (after 6 months - might give it a rejig soon) are:

Non negotiable monthly direct debits eg mortgage, council tax, energy
Things we could cancel monthly direct debits eg Spotify, Disney plus, cleaner
Non negotiable relatively fixed annual savings pots for car insurance, car tax, MOT, house insurance,
Annual pots for birthdays, Christmas
Regular Savings including serious grown up savings but also fun 'targets' eg lion king tickets at the moment
Longer term saving pots eg home maintenance, emergencies, holidays
Kids eg clubs, hobbies, clothes, holiday clubs
Normal spending eg petrol, main shop, top up shops, coal / logs, homewares
Fun spending eg eating out, entertainment

Roughly in the order I need to fund them so I start at the top and work my way down to allocate salary but then start at the bottom and work my way up to cover overspending.

I love love love YNAB but just start using it and you can adjust constantly until you've got something right for you.

It took me months of forgotten expenses until I had anything like a comprehensive list of exactly what our money goes to.

So sorry I missed a couple of replies on here. I'm getting frustrated with it, haven't got the hang of it yet, I might try to link it to get the best out of it! Good to hear positive stories on it!

I'm linked.

I've just renewed my subscription today actually.

I'm 2 years in and it's changed everything. I've gone from slightly overspending every month & saving erratically, and being ok but s bit clueless, to a healthy savings account, everything budgeted for well in advance. Christmas is pretty much covered already for example (budget wise) and many of my lines are fully funded.

I just booked a show at Christmas- comes out of Christmas budget so I don't need to think about if I can afford it.

Things felt a bit tight at the beginning but it gets quickly better. Having those annual bills come in is a no brainer now - they are fully funded before I need to pay & I don't have to think twice about it.

With energy bills more than doubling I was able to tweak budget to give it and it doesn't feel quite so bad.

It's a steep learning curve at the start. Their videos are good. I love Hannah.

Don't worry about making mistakes- you can rework everything at any time. Just persist & you will soon figure it all out.

Some helpful vids re starting out

Thank you everyone I will persist!

Persist! It's worth it. It took me two attempts to get into it (ie tried it once and gave up, couldn't find anything better so went back to it, and it clicked).

It's linking works amazingly well and saves so much time. I'd definitely link your accounts.

Take your time. Unfortunately they got rid of the forum they were running alongside which was so helpful. But the online videos etc are great and the 121 help is also very good.

I wouldn't bother with the FB groups.

If there is an element of it that doesn't work for you there's usually a workaround so pop back on here as likely someone will know one!

Good luck!

I went back to old/legacy YNAB, I remember the forums being great before the new version then it kicked off a bit is that why they closed them?
Once legacy stops working I'll go back to the new version, I love them both.