YNAB support thread (2)

[HouseofHolbein]

Just a continuation of the previous one before it fills up!

So, on day 22, I have adjusted my budget to try and add in lots of things I had forgotten. Birthdays, school trips etc which I'd previously just "winged" before.

I've realised I had savings as an expense, so tweaked that, as it should stay as money to be assigned as I'm not spending it, just moving it from my current account to another account. I still have that money. It's a different mindset to how I budgeted previously but I'm enjoying it.

@QueenMabby once your DS gets settled at uni, send an email to YNAB support explaining that a member of your household is now a student and they should give you a free year. Are you using YNAB Together for him?

I reconcile very sporadically :D Sometimes frequently, sometimes not.

@BertieBotts - really? That almost sounds too good to be true!

Yes. Using YNAB together.

It's worth a try. I don't know if only the main account holder has to be a student but they do give the free year if you become a mature student for instance after having had it for a while.

It’s only one year free, so my plan is to keep my DC in YNAB Together for the duration of university.

Did my reconciliation 😊 all good.

Love YNAB - it's the weekend before payday. I still have money in my grocery/fuel/socialising accounts. Taking my daughters out today so they can shop and we can get lunch so I will be utilising my days out category.

October is fully funded. November will be fully funded on Monday plus I will start with December.

I just love knowing that everything usual is funded and that anything else can be wam'd in case of emergency 😊

I fell off the wagon for a month or so but have gone through all my transactions and straightened up my budget! Luckily I should still have enough for what I need this month.

From next month's salary onwards, I need to start seriously saving as well as just spending more efficiently.

Pay day today. November is now fully funded and have started on December. Would have put more towards but I've put extra in my pets category because one of them needs some work doing 😊

Oh that sounds wrong 🤣🤣 one of them needs a dental examination under anaesthesia which is going to cost about £400 so I've boosted the pets category to cover it.

We'll do our October budgeting tonight. I've just set up a new category for DS's uni allowance. He got the first instalment of his loan today so has sent it over to us and we'll send it back to him in a monthly allowance.

@HouseofHolbein I had a fun few minutes musing on what "work" pets might need. "Hare" extensions for a rabbit, a trout pout for a goldfish...

Feel like I am letting the side down a bit here, just taken out another loan.

DS has started a post-16 vocational course and needed about €1000 of equipment. So, had to take a loan. The bank would only give me a minimum of €3000, so I took that and, as well as buying the equipment, I used €450 to pay off the rest of my credit card as the interest on that was almost three times that of the loan (18% cc interest versus 7.5% loan interest). Going to pay back what I don´t need on the loan to reduce the repayments and hopefully use some of my extra Xmas pay to reduce it further.

I feel like I don´t get much further sometimes, but I am slowly reducing and consolidating stuff.
I get a pay rise from November, but a lot of it will be eaten up in tax and DS is studying away (weekly boarding) for two terms out of three, so extra expenses incurred there. Still paying down the kids´braces, but that´s interest free and they let me pay what I can, when I can. Hoping to get that paid off within the next year.
At least I got rid of the 18% credit card debt. Cancelled the card this morning, had previously cut it up, but it felt good to actually cancel it as well.

Gah. Just had a letter from HMRC about a tax credit overpayment I have to pay back. £241 😢

Anyway I've taken it out of my gifts budget and I'll try to top it up a bit before Christmas.

At least I have them off my back now... I did tell them they were over paying me but they took no notice...

I actually had to pay back about £1200 last year had a nasty feeling there would be some more to pay 😭😭

That's rubbish for you, @HouseofHolbein :-(

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun I'm sorry I don't have any experience with loans but didn't want to read your message and not say anything. I hope you've got a plan and are feeling in control.

General question: what do you YNAB-ers do about overfunded categories? Example: looking at my October budget figures, I have about ten categories that are overfunded e.g. £8 in my TV licence category, £48.34 in car tax, £3.12 in pet insurance, £30 in hobbies.

I know it's been like that for ages, I suppose I've just accrued a bit every month through making repeated mistakes, and there's money 'left over'. Would you leave it as it is, or put all those extra pounds into 'ready to assign' and then assign it elsewhere e.g. Christmas presents, or next year's holiday?

@HarpQuartet I personally move any excess to ready to assign as it helps me keep everything straight - but it's a personal choice.

@flipent thank you - I've decided to do the same for some categories but not all e.g. optician and dentist can suddenly cost £££ so I'm happy to have a bit extra in there.

@flipent - for me it depends on the category. Something that's overfunded where I know I need £x on y date I'll probably take back.

Like @HarpQuartet if it's something more amorphous like for dental or appliance repair or similar then I'll let it build up a bit.

Yes agree - sometimes I scoop extra funds into another category like something fun, or useful e.g. emergency fund. Sometimes I just leave it in there as won't need to update it later then.

Just checking in on everyone! How's it going? I've had a bit of a rejig with how I do stuff which is currently working for me but I reserve the right to change things up again 🤣🤣

Please can I come join you?
New to YNAB but I'm loving it so far. I started at the end of last month so this is my first full month, my wages went in today so I had the fun of assigning all my money! Im itching for the last of the month so I can check my categories, see what i got right and wrong and check I'm on track

Welcome @Allthebloodythings! I think there's an amount of trial and error for a while with YNAB and tbh I change things up pretty regularly with my savings pots. It's working for me at the moment 😊

Looking good for mid October
I'm £10 out but don't know why 🙈

Haven't had time to reconcile today I'll do it in the morning 😊 I sometimes send myself scatty trying to find the odd bits I'm out 🤣🤣

I'm currently having the thrill of two budgets on the go. I've re-jigged how I categorise some of our savings but until I'm happy that it's a good change, I'll keep my old budget up to date too.