@WorthySloth I'm hoping the rumours of a YNAB demise are wrong. But I'm keenly interested in any paper based system you come up with. Would love to piggy-back on your work.
My bank has introduced a feature called 'pots' which seems to work a bit like a YNAB system only with real money. I haven't looked into it in detail but will do at some point. Monzo has had this as a feature for some time. I really should look into Monzo again as I would like to change banks but it all seems like too much effort. Perhaps I should do it by stealth. Moving savings first etc. I am worrying that I will just end up with a proliferation of accounts and then I will forget where all the money is. This happened with an aged relative. I had to 'assist him with the conduct of his affairs' a phrase used by his solicitor. I think the aged relative had lost one of his current accounts and a savings account which between them held the bulk of his cash and thought he had become very poor. Which theory accounted for a lot of odd behaviour.
@YnabNewbie congratulations. It is really amazing how quickly it works once you get going isn't it?
I am very pleased, in fact things are going so well I am worried I have made mistakes with YNAB. But the money seems to be there in the bank accounts! Definitely I am in a far better position with both my personal and household accounts than I was this time last year, or even six months ago.
I have done a fresh start this month with the personal account. I still feel I haven't got the hang of dealing with the savings and have completely forgotten how I set it up. Also, May/June has been very confusing as I have a small lump sum annual pension payment in June. I could have coped with that but the State Pension (UK) is paid four weekly in arrears (I think), this means that there are 13 payments in a calendar year, with two payments appearing in one month. However you would have to be a lot cleverer than me to work out when this is going to happen as it seems to vary a lot year on year. Also the dates of the month when payments are made are not consistent and seem to reset themselves occasionally and especially after the catch up extra payment arrives. I think that the 13th payment has arrived in May this year but every time I count it it turns out differently. It is also confusing because payment dates are affected by bank holidays. This is not my strong point. I think I will have to wait till August to find out if the extra payment has arrived or is still in the pipeline. At the moment I think it is best to budget on the basis it hasn't arrived. Or possibly the other way round.
Either way I seem to have more money than I thought I had and am feeling very happy with the way things are going.
I'm not going to assign everything at once in the fresh start budget. Shock, horror I know but I'm going to assign the income and expenditure as the month goes on. Then I will have a better idea of where I am at the end.