YNAB support thread (2)

[HouseofHolbein]

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

Doesn't seem to be possible. I have just put all the money in an ING savings category instead.

You can't convert an account from tracking to on-budget or vice versa.

However what you can do is open a new YNAB account of the type you want with a balance of 0, and then transfer all the money from the old account to the new account. You have to do this as a transaction, so bear in mind it will mess up your reports. But that's the way to do it. Then you rename the old one to "ING (old)" and because the balance is now 0, you can close it.

Less than a week to payday & these are the overspent categories.

Some like the haircut for dd was an appointment that happened earlier than expected. The school activities-some wig this will be repaid by her dad. I get paid before month end so I'm not going to wam right now.

How's it going everyone? I get paid on Friday. All this months bills are paid. I have enough to pay for my shopping this week. All next months money is waiting to be transferred across to my spending accounts 1/12. I have some money to buy gifts with. I'm actually feeling really relaxed about things right now 😊

Hope everyone else is doing ok 👍

Just done my final assigning of the year! Will definitely be renewing for next year. I can't believe what a difference YNAB has made.

Rapidly realising I have not budgeted enough for Christmas...

I seem to be struggling again.
I can't get out of the mind set of everything being ok on pay day - and then effectively over spending for the last 3/4 days of the month.
Just seem to be on the back foot all of the time.

Mid-year, I felt totally in control, but I'm coming up to my year anniversary with YNAB, and I am in a better situation, but not where I thought I would be.

You’re in a better situation, so that’s a win. Baby steps.

@flipent - you've made some progress so that's good.

It's important to be reflective of your spending. You say you always overspend in the last 4-5 days of the month. Why?

Because there are expenses that you are not taking into account in your budget? Because you look and see your balances and think you have plenty left so go on a spending spree? Or are you not good at waiting until you have funds available before buying?

Understanding the motivation behind your spending habits can be eye-opening!

@QueenMabby Because pay day is on 27th of the month, and some of that month still requires allocating.
Just feels like I'm not getting out of a loop. So Groceries for example - I'm deciding an amount, which should be doable - but I always seem to need to top up once I get paid.
I think I would do better if I could set the month pay day to pay day - just struggling to make sure I'm not having to allocate more from pay day to complete the month.

I have this issue too - I get paid a week before the end of the month. I have 5 separate categories for groceries (Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) which are numbered from when I get paid - so Week 1 is at the end of each month. Other things like eating out and entertainment, etc., are also done the same way - I top them up when I get paid, and carry over into the new month.

I get paid on 27th but that money sits in my RTA until I budget the next month so the money I got paid today is used for 1st-31st December for example.

Feb would be a good time to try and spin out the month so that what you get paid on 27th Feb is only used for 1st - 31st March. As Feb is a short month you don't have to stretch funds so far and once you're those few days ahead, it's easier to maintain.

I get paid on the 23rd and put everything into the current month’s categories. It rolls over into the new month on the 1st, and I know that what’s in each category only needs to last me until the 23rd, not the end of the month.

If you’re not lasting until your payday on the 27th, you’re either overspending, or you’re not accepting your “true expenses”, as they like to say over at YNAB.

DH gets paid on the 25th so we have similar, helped by the fact the child benefit (German not UK) comes in towards the beginning of the month.

At first, I was filling categories up to the 25th and everything would be empty or red by then and when we got to payday I'd have to complete the month with that payday and then allocate the rest to the next month.

It then reached a point where there are a couple of bills which come out between 26th-31st and those for a while were the only thing I allocated to the same month on the 25th. Recently, I only do this with one of those bills, which is a loan and one of our bigger direct debits (it will also be paid off in May I think, so not much point trying to change that habit now). The other bills which came out on these dates were smaller, like €40 each or something so I have shifted over time to covering them with the previous month's pay. It's only that one loan payment left now.

Frustrating not to get that last chunk, because I managed to pay off overdrafts using YNAB and we haven't got to a point where we needed to take out more loans. But it's a big chunk so I don't feel too bad about it.

Morning! Just done my reconciliation and then assigned my wages 👍 realised that my wages don't quite cover the monthly expenses but I get a pay rise in 6 weeks so that'll cover that. In the meantime I have the Boychilds keep and loan repayment to fill the gap. Plus the month I was allocating to is January so no real rush for the last bit.

Looking forward to march when a couple of locked savings accounts mature... I won't be locking away again tbh. They will fill up my longer term categories. I won't allocate them currently because I can't access them so they are just tracking. Does that make sense?

Anyway that with the pay rise will make things a bit easier from march. Still don't regret moving jobs even tho I'd be on more money if I'd stayed where I was... however money isn't everything is it?

This is what I do.
I get paid last Thurs of month so it varies & I'm only getting paid monthly since August so still getting used to it.

I was too busy yesterday to sort out my overspent categories and allocate my ready to assign money and annoyingly now my banking app is down. I'd like to get this done before YNAB moves into December and everything gets even more confused!

We're now a week into December and I've not sorted November or December properly yet.

It's the last day of the year, and I'm slightly cross because I've had to WAM money from spring bill categories to pay for food etc. But I'm also reflecting on last year when I put it on a credit card instead. I am definitely still winning.

My net worth is up 50% from what it was last December, although that is mostly January bills (including tax) that have been budgeted for. (They also weren't budgeted for last Christmas)

Hoping I'll be more organised as it feels like two steps forward, one step back currently.

Happy new year everyone! I just got paid and have funded February's bills 😊 I have some savings categories I want to fund but I have some cash tied up in a bond which matures in march which will fill those. I don't want to allocate it yet because I actually can't touch it at the moment so it's not real money.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Here's to a prosperous 2025 👍

Happy New Year's Eve!

DH and I are looking forward to doing our annual review tonight where we tot up everything we've spent in each category and set targets for 2025. There will be wine and snacks too. Can't wait!

@MrsWombat sounds like you are definitely winning 👏🏻

And a happy new year to this nice group of YNAB-ers ❤️

We've had quite an expensive end to the year (probably same as everyone) but I budgeted for the Christmas presents, food etc almost completely right 🥂

I have a few big-ish hobby-related expenses coming up that I haven't really allowed for, BUT these days I quite like looking at my other categories and deciding what can be cut instead. @QueenMabby I agree this is even more fun with wine and snacks.

This year my YNAB wins were funding a £10k medical procedure privately and seeing my retirement pot increase by £25k since January (significant contributions were made by my employer too—it wasn’t all me). I had a 27% raise/promotion in Q4, so my financial goals next year (retirement & mortgage overpayments) will hopefully grow faster! 🍾

Happy New Year all. My resolution is definitely to reconcile more frequently! Just got myself in a massive mess after not doing it for two months.

Overall I'm really enjoying YNAB since starting in September.

Does anyone have any tips on identifying longer term "jobs" for money? At the moment I've got savings pots and I don't really know what they're for. I think this increases the temptation to spend it on unplanned things or to cover over spends on other areas.

I have one called Retirement Cash, one called USA Trip (although I have no trip/date planned), one called Emergency Fund, a Uni Fund for each DC, and one called Mortgage Overpayments 2027 (my current mortgage % is lower than savings rates at banks, so I will pay down a chunk when my current mortgage deal expires in 2027–in the meantime it’s earning interest).

@Chatonette Thank you. I have renamed one of my pots to mortgage overpayment. We're in exactly the same place in terms of rates - current mortgage is 1.6% so it's obviously going up at the end of the term.

I might start a long term holiday fund too. I really want to go to Las Vegas when the kids are grown up. Only 13 years to go