YNAB useful or useless?

Shelski_2

Hi everyone,

I'm hearing lots about the YNAB budgeting tool and was wondering how many people are using it from this site and how easy / effective is it to use?
Thanks
Shelski

FireWyrm

I use it

Well worth the money in my opinion. It hasnt truly revolutionised my life because I was doing a form of it using Excel, but it has a slick GUI and it syncs across Dropbox which makes it quite useful. You can enter transactions on your phone and it will sync with your budget which you can then review later that evening on your laptop...kind of thing. You get the idea.

Or, you could use my free excel version of the same thing : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/58m07i0jklqny0e/n3c1E0QUVw

YNAB is costly at about £30, but well worth it if you have it spare. It will pay for itself if you are diligent and follow the methodology.

[Deleted User]

There are two components of YNAB: their methodology and their program. Their methodology is the most important part, the software provides a fantastic way to implement their methodology but you can do it without it. Their methodology is explained on their website (click here) and following that (with or without the software) will provide a huge positive benefit to your finances, if you find yourself living pay cheque to pay cheque.

I think it's worth every penny and highly recommend it, but you can't just use it as a way to track expenses, you need to use their way of giving every penny a job.

~Beanie~

I've just started using it and am still in the free trial period. I have taken some of the webinars to help me work out how to use it properly and they helped a lot.

I will definitely be paying for it when my trial runs out.

stalkah

I've just started using it, and so far all I have is praise. Seems amazing their methodology makes sense and is helped by the software. Attend the webinars and take in as much free information as possible.

Definitely worth the £30 for it

tizerbelle

It can be a bit "aargh" to start with as you try to get your head round the YNAB way of thinking but then again that could just have been me!

You can download the software for a free 34 day trial - plenty of time to play around with it and get used to it but you really do need to watch the support videos / read the guides to get the best use of it. If you sign up to a live webinar you are in with a chance of winning a free copy of the software.

Shelski_2

So, I've downloaded the free trial and the method seems to make sense. I like the idea of allocating the money but also the fact that this can be flexible from month to month - no typical month in our house.

Thank you for all of your replies. I'll let you know how I get on

Shelski

FireWyrm

Shelski wrote: »

So, I've downloaded the free trial and the method seems to make sense. I like the idea of allocating the money but also the fact that this can be flexible from month to month - no typical month in our house.

Thank you for all of your replies. I'll let you know how I get on

Shelski

Go to the website and work through the videos. My first stab at a budget didnt work out well, I made some fundamental errors which skewed it and made it a mess, and I understand book keeping. I had to do it over again. Starting in overdraft can be a bit of a struggle to deal with, but now it reconciles with the bank and I know exactly how much is to be spent where and when.

getmore4less

No houses have typical months, the SOA approach is an average month.

The trick with a budget/plan is the longer term(min one year) thinking and managing cash flow.

if you live to the money in your accounts you are not budgeting
(the multiple account envelope/... approaches gets part way there)

if you plan where your income goes and track your spending at the planed level(with any tool) and keep to the plan balanced then you are budgeting.

I looked at YNAB and I can see why it works for people but preferred MSMoney(free) for the tools included but that is not into the new world of mobile/connected... if you want that

The bottom line with budgets is they are a plan for where you want your money to go, any tool can track that even a piece of paper, do a year not a month, and then track spending to plan.

How hard is it to plan £240(£20pm) on clothes for a year and track that is all you spend on clothes.

YNAB works for a lot off people that need to change the way they think.

Shelski_2

Have completed the first 2 webinairs and gave to say it all makes sense so far. Looking forward to Tuesdays pay day then I can test it out properly.

cydney65

Have looked through the web site and completed a couple of webinairs too. I've decided to use FireWyrm's spreadsheet and adapt it for my own use-thank you FireWyrm!

I will be starting from next month and I'm a little bit scared by it, but I do understand the principles behind YNAB so I'm sure I'll be fine. It's just the 'make every dollar work' idea that worries me as I'm used to there being money left over every month to chuck into savings, but then I struggle to pay off those annual bills that crop up from time to time.