You Need A Budget

Standingtall · 23 April 2014 at 1:31PM

Hi All

Has anyone used the YNAB software and has anyone purchased it - e.g. is it worth the money and what happens since you have to pay for it in USD.

I know there are free spreadsheets in abundance but what I liked about this is that my DH and I can put it on our smartphones and update in real time. It looks like we can put both our bank accounts in etc too.

Any thoughts appreciated.

ST

Pixie5740 · 23 April 2014 at 1:34PM

I'm currently trialling it just now. I'm going to spend some time at the weekend properly filling it all in as like you I like the idea of being able to track my spending on my smart phone.

If I decide to purchase it I'm going to use my Nationwide Select Visa as I don't get charged fees for foreign purchases.

ellerose · 23 April 2014 at 1:44PM

I've just purchased after the trial and it has absolutely transformed my finances and mindset already. You'll see from my sig I am far from out of the woods - but within 60 days I have a substantial buffer building for those long term categories that would have caught me out in previous years and gone on credit cards.

Wholeheartedly recommended here!

I bought mine via Steam so no need for a foreign currency purchase, and you can buy it via Appstore if you're using a Mac

xx

hohum · 23 April 2014 at 1:45PM

I'm trialling it now and plan to purchase once the trial is up. It's a one off payment and worth it I think - like you I like the tracking on smart phones plus the entire budgeting approach. You can take part in free online seminars which gives you a chance to win a copy. You can pay for it by paypal or using card, so will pay whatever conversion your bank does on foreign transactions. I don't usually get charged for this by my bank. Works out about £30?

ellerose · 23 April 2014 at 1:47PM

Like I say, hohum - if you buy via Steam it's £29.99 with no need for a foreign currency transaction

FireWyrm · 23 April 2014 at 1:48PM

I downloaded and played with the demo. I promptly then went ahead and bought it after a few hours of tinkering. It has completely changed the way I manage finances. I was doing it via spreadsheet, but YNAB is that on sterioids with all the bells and whistles too. I like the way you can click on any group or amount and see all the transactions that went into it for instance. You can do it via spreadsheet and I posted a link to a website with tonnes of great ones (https://www.vertex42.com) just the other day, but YNAB is definitely worth the money and effort.

Standingtall · 23 April 2014 at 2:09PM

Thanks everyone - so have downloaded the free trail and I am seriously impressed already. DH was at work and downloaded onto his phone and it was changing in front of him as i was inputting info from this end! Amazing.

The main thing for me is that we cannot have a joint account due to my DMP - need to keep financially unlinked. This enables us to work things now as though we have got a joint account however! Brilliant.

Cheers All:beer:
ST

FinanciallyUnsavvy · 23 April 2014 at 2:30PM

In short - YES!

I was lucky enough to get it on sale from Steam so got the full version for something like £7. I honestly do not know how I ever managed to go through life without it! I've managed to pay back £1500 worth of debt since Christmas and I put it solely down to YNAB - without that I'd have just been adding more debt instead...

As you can see quite a few people here have adopted it, and I don't know anyone who has anything bad to say about it.

Getting your head around the full functionality can be a bit daunting, but once you get there, it's the best budget software I've ever come across.

Willowpop · 23 April 2014 at 2:44PM

I'm kinda jealous. I signed up for the free trial after hearing people rave about it....but couldn't get my head around it at all. I just couldn't work it out.
I have now found a spread sheet and that seems to be working fine , but I feel all left out!!

Enjoy YNAB, lots of folk speak very highly of it.

*Dee* · 23 April 2014 at 2:50PM

Can you still use it when the trial runs out?

FireWyrm · 23 April 2014 at 2:56PM

Willowpop wrote: »

I'm kinda jealous. I signed up for the free trial after hearing people rave about it....but couldn't get my head around it at all. I just couldn't work it out.
I have now found a spread sheet and that seems to be working fine , but I feel all left out!!
Enjoy YNAB, lots of folk speak very highly of it.

It took me a couple of hours of tinkering and two botched budgets to get the hang of it. Stop thinking of it as software and start thinking of it as a super automated excel spreadsheet and the understanding will come. All you have to do is imagine that your transaction register is sheet one and all categorised transactions end up all nicely sorted on sheet 2 (budget). As long as your categories are consistent and you have a solid workable budget, then it all just slots together neatly. Every time you import transactions, assign them to a category and voila, they appear in the budget. If you spend more than you budgetted for the category, you get a red entry, you then have to play (what they call on the site) whack-a-mole to take money from other categories (sub-budgets) to balance the overspend. All your right most columns should read zero at the end of the month because you have spent all your budgeted money in that category. Any red ones need to be addressed immediately out of underspends in other categories or they roll forward to the next month as a loss and therefore a decrease in the amount available to budget next month.

You Need A Budget

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