Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

Happy new year everybody :T:beer::j may it bring you wonderful things.


I had a quiet night after all, dinner was cancelled partly due to one person dropping out and partly as this left me a little uncomfortable about spending all night with that particular host - she is lovely in some ways but has questionable politics in others and at one point said something that might have upset me except that it was so patently not actually about me - anyway I decided I didn't want to risk spoiling a great mood so just went round to a friend's for a DVD and a little bit of TV around midnight. I tidied up before I left so came home to fresh sheets, purring cats and my Desire Map planner waiting on the bedside table .

I'm in a really good place at the moment, just delighted and excited to be coming into this new phase that will hopefully bring some dreams into reality. I also woke up this morning so thrilled to have three whole days at home - it's exactly what I need to chill after the Christmas madness and do some New Year thinking . I'm going to plan, meditate, study, tidy, and hopefully also go out for a good walk and a lovely meal with a local friend.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

I have no idea how I came to this so late, but there's a new YNAB :j.

I only realised this yesterday when I looked at my phone app and it suddenly had a sash saying 'Classic' - so I went to have a look at the website. I've got the trial version for free for 34 days, but I can't find any pricing info yet, so am hoping it won't be much different from the old version cost. However, I notice that it's now a web app and includes a default category called 'software subscriptions'... so the model may have changed .

I now have a whole new budget set up in the new version :T which took a bit of swearing yesterday as it turns out that
1) if you put a savings account in, it assumes you can use that money for anything - I can't find an option to take the account outside of budget like you could in YNAB 4. This is no good to me, as the accounts are for family debt repayment and an ISA - they would only be used in a real emergency. I've now deleted the accounts, and used the new category Goals function (love it! love it! :j) to track that money in categories instead.
2) you now can't allocate money that hasn't come in yet at all. Even if it's in the same month. This got me confused because in YNAB 4, I would put in my pay in late January and split it between the remainder of January, and use most of it to fund February. For me, in practice this only meant the rent payment coming out of the same month's paycheque, as the rent falls due 2 days after I get paid, and so far I have prioritised paying off debts rather than getting a month ahead with the rent. In the new version, it refuses to count my January paycheque until it hits the bank, and will only let me allocate the balance I brought in from December - so I can't budget my rent payment without looking very overspent right through til I get paid. However, because I have also set up recurring payments, YNAB can 'see' that I have the payment due this month, and is flagging that category as underfunded so far. I will revisit it when my pay comes in, and budget February then too. I suspect this new way of working will keep me stricter with allocating and mean that I keep revisiting the budget, which of course is the intention.
3) Credit card payments are now shown as categories to budget to - I'm still figuring out quite how this works. Hopefully it will make it more straightforward as this was something I got muddled with a couple of times in YNAB 4 - including when I was working out the amounts to go in categories in the new version budget, and realised I'd budgeted for something I'd bought on a store card in both the clothes category and the cards one. Was very pleased to get that money back again :rotfl:


I do like the new version as it seems rather simpler, and it's been great timing for me. I had a huge number of categories in the old version and was already thinking of tidying them up, but putting it off. I've now cut the number of categories right down - so eg the cat's insurance and vet plan and food all goes in under Pet Care, rather than being separate. I've also revisited all my recurring payments, as I'd been putting off sorting them out and adjusting them so had been editing the amounts every month. One shiny new budget sorted and I am still hoping it might just be possible to clear the Last Card on payday - even if I have to put college fees on the other one for clearing in Feb. Me controlling the cards, not vice versa

I'm off to make bacon sarnies and spend some time with my Desire Map planner, which will hopefully be just as exciting as New YNAB . No, I am not sad , these are tools that help build my dream life :j


Rosa xx

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Hello you, long time no Z! :j

And what a relief for everyone...

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Happy new year - I hope all is well with you and that 2016 will be even better.

And you too also.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I had a quiet night after all, dinner was cancelled partly due to one person dropping out and partly as this left me a little uncomfortable about spending all night with that particular host - she is lovely in some ways but has questionable politics in others

If all that is wrong with her, is her politics, then you may just both have to accept there are some subjects that you can't talk about with each other, and choose something different - but still stay friendly. All political ideas in a democracy are equally valid - it's the weight of numbers that carry the day.

The notion of following the red/blue/yellow/green/purple/tartan rosette, is just a device of political leaders to divide and conquer, rather than unite and lead. But you're not going to (in normal circumstances) get people to change, no more than you're going to get a Man U supporter to cheer Accrington Stanley...

I just accept that people believe different things to me (aka they're wrong... ) and talk about something else. Yes, you can get people to espouse two of their deepest held beliefs, and then illustrate that they contradict each other, but that's cognitive dissonance in it's purest form, and you'll not be thanked for it. So only do it if they've really annoyed you... :rotfl:

RosaBernicia wrote: »

and at one point said something that might have upset me except that it was so patently not actually about me

Don't get upset on behalf of other people only yourself. For every view, there is an opposing view. Even for something like "Fat bottom girls make the world go round..."

Yes, there are people who have vented at that.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I'm in a really good place at the moment, just delighted and excited to be coming into this new phase that will hopefully bring some dreams into reality.

:T:T:T:T

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I also woke up this morning so thrilled to have three whole days at home - it's exactly what I need to chill after the Christmas madness and do some New Year thinking . I'm going to plan, meditate, study, tidy, and hopefully also go out for a good walk and a lovely meal with a local friend.


Rosa xx

Enjoy yourself, and don't drink too little...

RosaBernicia

Have solved the YNAB and credit cards mystery - and it's brilliant, the new version lets you categorise transactions out of your budget pots. Now, when you spend money on a credit card, you can categorise it to come out of the available budget for that month. So eg if I buy something on the D3benham5 card (usually now for perfectly sensible reasons like getting a discount), I can categorise it as coming out of the clothes budget category, and that money is taken out of Clothes budget category and put into CC Repayments budget category ready to be paid over. Marvellous.

(It used to really annoy me that you couldn't categorise CC payments in the old one, because it meant I had to reshuffle money from different pots to put the money for repayment aside, even when it was money I had sensibly budgeted and only the way I paid for it was different.)

Let's hope this new version doesn't turn out to be massively expensive!_pale_


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

OK, I'm an eejit... have just gone back to the YNAB website and it says in very big letters on the sign-up page that it's $5 a month or $50 a year.

So about the same as before... perhaps more expensive depending how often it used to be upgraded, but sounds worth it to me.

I think I was so excited I just assumed the headline was dull stuff and clicked the download button!


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

ZTD wrote: »

If all that is wrong with her, is her politics, then you may just both have to accept there are some subjects that you can't talk about with each other, and choose something different - but still stay friendly. ... But you're not going to (in normal circumstances) get people to change, no more than you're going to get a Man U supporter to cheer Accrington Stanley...

I just accept that people believe different things to me (aka they're wrong... ) and talk about something else.

I'm effectively just choosing to not spend time with her any more. You're right that she isn't going to change, but I don't want to spend time with someone who believes those things, or who doesn't bother to think about what they say to friends.

ZTD wrote: »

Enjoy yourself, and don't drink too little...

Rosa xx

hign10pines

just finished reading the whole, thread. Your job(s) are fascinating me and I'm dying to know what you do or at least in what industry.

MuffinTops

Hello Rosa,

I've just finished setting up my new YNAB. Thank you for passing that information on. Did you know that if you sign up for the yearly within your trial you get $5 off for life? So just $45 a year. I'm tempted, but need to think it through. If I do it'll be a 1 Feb payment to help me through January.

All of your plans sound brilliant. I've noted that I need to read more so have been very much like you recently. I need to ensure I stay on my chosen path.

Take care and so lovely to hear how well 2016 is so far for you.

MTxx

Tinkerbelle2000

Hi Rosa. Thanks for the update on YNAB. I downloaded it some time ago and not used to properly but now I'm a bit confused. Do you have to pay each year to use it and do you have to download the new version.

I'm just thinking this because I can't afford to purchase it again and I'm still getting my head round using the old version lol.

Thankfully I have all my lovely printables as a back up.

Tink xx

RosaBernicia

Tinkerbelle2000 wrote: »

Hi Rosa. Thanks for the update on YNAB. I downloaded it some time ago and not used to properly but now I'm a bit confused. Do you have to pay each year to use it and do you have to download the new version.

I'm just thinking this because I can't afford to purchase it again and I'm still getting my head round using the old version lol.

Thankfully I have all my lovely printables as a back up.

Tink xx

Hi Tink

I think the way YNAB charge has changed with their new version.

With the old one, you got a free trial and then if you wanted it, you paid about £35 to have that version. My understanding was that this lasted basically for ever and included updates. I can still access my old version separately to the new free trial, and the support info for the old one (in my case YNAB 4) is still available on their website. The old version is perfectly good, and I loved that too, it's just different to the new one. (And I don't think it's very helpful that they have decided to call the new one just YNAB instead of a clearly different version or name!) So if you bought the old version, you should still have that available to use, and all the guides on how to set it up if you want to do that.

The new version seems to work on a subscription so that you pay for it every year or month, and presumably if you stop subscribing you will lose access either to everything, or to future budgets. As MT has kindly pointed out, it's $45 for a year which works out to about £30.50 - so pretty much the same price as the old one, but you now have to pay it every year instead of just once. There is some info on their website about why they have moved to a web based model and how this relates to the changes, but some of it is techie stuff that I have let go straight over my head , so you'd be best off looking at the website. There is also a rather good 'transition guide' that explains the differences between the new and old versions here .

I hope that helps... tbh if you are still getting sorted with the old version and needing to be well :money:, I would stick with the old one. I would have debated switching for longer if it hadn't popped up at such a good time for me (it's given me a fresh start for the new year and as the trial is 34 days I won't need to pay for it til February when I am - hopefully- very near the end of my DF journey and have more flexibility).


Rosa xx