YNAB support thread (2)

[HouseofHolbein]

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

"What does my.money need to do before I get paid again?' doesn't necessarily mean 1st to 1st. It could be 25th to 25th.

I do it like this and it works. I would like to get to 1st to 1st but not quite there yet!

I'm going to try it this month to see if it works better for me...

We now go 1st to 1st even though dh and I get paid on 24th and 27th of the month. It just sits in RTA for a week before we assign it to the next month.

We managed that by eking out our salary in February which is the shortest month! It was easier to just think of getting through those four week and when we got our Feb salaries we found that we had enough left that we could keep our Feb salary to use in March. Once it had happened once it was easy to continue.

It's fine to be wamming between spending categories. The issue is when you're having to Wam out of savings or sinking funds. We've overspent on clothes this month but randomly have quite a bit left in groceries so I've moved some over.

Next month I'm going to try using the reflect reports to inform my "variable" categories by using the average from the last six months as my amount for the month and see how that goes. I don't use targets in my variable categories as they do change from month to month. March is usually lower for groceries as we have a lot of family birthdays so we're eating out 4-5 times that month. The leisure category needs to be higher to compensate.

We do a calendar month now but I did struggle to begin with as I still had the mindset of being able to spend spend spend on payday.

I've now got to the stage of ynab where I actually stop and check my categories "before* I buy something.

Also in the middle of a plumbing emergency which I'm not panicking about due to being able to see money in the relevant category.

Hi everyone.

Maybe i could get some advice.
We had a car accident in the autumn (rear ended at the traffic lights) and went through the insurance for whiplash and got some compensation. Want to use it to reduce some debts.

I still owe €940 for the kids braces. Have been paying it down for YEARS (2 kids in braces) but the dentist was a friend of MIL and has known us for years so it's interest free and they let us pay what we can when we can. I pay between €50-100 a month usually. So, as it's interest free it should be low on my list but i feel like i am taking the piss a bit in how long it's taking me. If i paid the balance off I would have €100 a month extra in my pocket.

The other debt i want to pay down is a loan at 7.5% interest over 5 years. The payments are reasonable at about 60€ a month. I actually have two of these loans but not enough to pay them both off. I could pay off the dentist and about €1600 of one of the loans. Or nothing on the dentist and all of one loan.

I feel like i should prioritise the loan but it would actually reduce my outgoings by less - €60 a month if i eliminate the loan in full versus €130 more a month in my pocket if i pay off the dentist and part of one loan.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun I'm not the best person to give financial advice, but in your situation I'd pay off the dentist and 1600 towards one loan. I think psychologically having a debt fully gone is good for motivation and lowering stress levels, and as you say, you'd be better off month to month so would have more flexibility around what to do with that money.

If the dentist loan bothers you most clear that, have you emergency fund? If not keep some of €1600 for that, do you need physio or any other medical expenses as a result of accident?

I cleared my cc yesterday I paid interest last three or four months despite having the money sitting there. It's gone and all I owe now is mortgage.

Must find out if I've got a bill at local hardware store for renovation and pay that too

No, no medical expenses. We had physio through the insurance claim. Didn´t really need it to be honest, but everyone does it here. You have about 2 months physio and also claim for damages. (We´re in Spain).

I think I will pay the dentist off and as much as I can to reduce the loan, while still leaving a bit of a buffer. Then I can hoepfully use some of the 100 euros a month I´ll be saving to reduce the loan further.

I should get about 1200 euros at some point in the next year as part of a subsidy for my solar panels and my plan is to use that to reduce the remaining loans. I could reduce the solar panel loan but it´s a lower rate of interest (3%) so I would prioritise the 7.5% loan over that.

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun fwiw I would also pay off the dentist, for the relief of having that debt cleared from my brain. My husband doesn't have the same mentality as me - I would have paid off our mortgage years earlier than we did, for the relief of just having it gone, but there was a sound financial reason not to, which I would understand for a full five minutes after having the maths explained, then, would just go back to wanting to pay it off!

Thanks everyone. I think i will go and pay that off tomorrow.
Then I will pay a bit off the loan and then hopefully some more later in the year.

Yeah I think I would pay the dentist off too. Will settle your mind from the sound of it as well as freeing up monthly cash to pay off the other debts.

I am also keeping a bit back for DD to go on a language exchange next year that I know I won't have time to save up for.

We have a "school trips" sinking fund which comes in very handy. It's funded DS on a trip to CERN and dd on a music tour in recent years!

Hi everyone I actually started this thread but have had to have a name change. Popping on to say hello!

also did a fresh start with YNAB needed to rejig how I did things and this seemed the simplest way.

hope everyone is doing ok!

Nearly the end of the month how are everyone’s budgets holding up? I haven’t spent as much this month mainly due to not being able to get Black Sabbath tickets 🤣🤣 but I have had to set up a pot for my youngest for college expenses eg trips and studio fees etc.

pay day on Friday. Always a good day 😁

Pretty good here. An almost bizarrely cheap month for groceries. On the downside I realised I haven't got a category for replacing tech, and a couple of laptops are looking like they're on the way out, so that's a lesson.

Also had a cheap month for groceries and also socialising oddly enough. Once the month rolls over I’ll put some of that into savings I think

Just been paid and assigned my money. March is fully funded now and most of April is funded too. Have a couple of savings accounts maturing middle of march so will be using them to pay off some car repairs plus funding long term savings. Have an expensive summer coming up lots of gigs booked in so need to save cash for those 😊

I've finally got the hang of reconciliation.

Yay! It took me a while 😁

I’ve just had some savings mature so I can access them. I’ve topped up my savings pots then been able to fully fund April May and June which has given me peace of mind as my mom is currently very frail and it means if I need to take time off for her then I can 😊

Sorry to hear about your mum @WorthySloth but what a relief to know you have a cushion should you need it.
DH won £275 in the premium bonds this month so we’re adding that to our “Education costs” category to try and beef that up a bit. University accommodation costs are expensive and whilst we are lucky enough that we have capital we can use, the more we can save from our monthly income the less we have to draw down. DS’s next term’s accommodation is just over £2k and we have about £1.5k saved from income which is a YNAB win for us!

DH is on a stag do this weekend so that will decimate our Holiday category though!

Thank you @QueenMabby she’s almost 96 and is declining quite quickly now. The end will be a huge relief for everyone tbh.

It’s coming to the end of the month 😊 is anyone still budgeting? Have to say I keep tinkering with my priorities. Feel a bit more organised since I did my fresh start earlier this year. Had some savings mature which are now easier access so I have classed myself as 3 months ahead fully funded.

looking at changing jobs again 🤣🤣 at least with a buffer I don’t need to worry about pay dates changing etc as I no longer live paycheque to paycheque. Although I do love payday because I get to allocate money 🤣🤣

waiting for madness tickets to be released tomorrow to decide whether I see them in December. I’m really tempted but depends on the cost 😁

Yes - checked my budgets this morning to see if we can go to the cinema and have dinner out tonight (with the help of a £10 off voucher!)