You Need A Budget

blisteringblue

dreamdreamer wrote: »

The main issue for me was that you HAD to run your "budget month" from the 1st to the 1st. I get paid on the 25th but most of my bills go out on the 1st. It was doing my nut in that for the first 25 days of each calendar month everything was 'red' because it couldn't recognise my income from the 25th of the previous month was funding the transactions.

I wouldn't let this worry you, I'm the same with my payday the 20th. All I do is split my income and spread it between the months.

ie 1/3 for current month and 2/3 to the next month. That way your budget is true month to month.

So in your case I would have 2 entries on payday, 1/5 of you salary for the current month and 4/5 for the next month.

I also enter all bills for the whole month as uncleared at the start of the month and then just tick them off cleared and consolidate every Friday with my internet banking.

dreamdreamer

I did try the allocated for next month function but I found it just got really overcomplicated as what comes out between the 25th and the 31st of each month varies depending on purchases eg. whether we do a food shop in that time, whether DD/SO dates fall at weekends/BHs etc. So I was constantly having to adjust what portion of my pay went to each month. It just seemed to make it such hard work that I ended up not filling it in and then it fell by the wayside. I'm sure I could make it work, I just find my own spreadsheets less of a headache!

FireWyrm

Ganderson1804 wrote: »

Can you use YNAB if you already have a piggy bank system in place? My husband has finally come around to how our money works but we have a spreadsheet and i keep it on my work computer - something he could have on his smartphone would be brilliant.

Absolutely you can. Set up the budget with the same categories that you are used to in your spreadsheet and then just sync it with dropbox. When your husband registers transactions, he can assign them to categories and it updates pretty much in real time. You may have to sort out the odd mis-indexed transaction and generally keep and eye to ensure no double entries, but just think of YNAB as a spreadsheet - that's all it is.

Can you only have the software on one system? Like if i put it on my work computer and set it all up, can i see it on my laptop at home too if i need to change / add anything?

It syncs with dropbox. As long as you have access to that, you can keep the file updated from any and all devices. I have it on two computers for instance.

FireWyrm

dreamdreamer wrote: »

I trialled it last year but whilst I was initially wowed I just couldn't get along with it. The main issue for me was that you HAD to run your "budget month" from the 1st to the 1st. I get paid on the 25th but most of my bills go out on the 1st. It was doing my nut in that for the first 25 days of each calendar month everything was 'red' because it couldn't recognise my income from the 25th of the previous month was funding the transactions.

Also because my pay varies depending on overtime most of my May spending would be dependent on my 25th April pay, not my 25th May pay, but because the month runs 1st to 1st it would use my 25th May pay to work out deficits and surplusses and would show these where there really weren't any. I read all the stuff about why when you're properly budgeting it doesn't matter when your month starts, and I tried for 3 months to adjust to it, but I just couldn't. It did my head in, it was such a messy way to try and run a budget.

I ended up reverting back to my trusty spreadsheets. But if they ever allow you to define your rolling month I'll be getting it for sure.

I get paid on the last working day of the month...30th April this month. I have assigned that incoming transaction to 'income in may' so it shows for the May budget. Is that what you mean? All my bills will come out on the 1/2nd May. I didnt bother starting in debt as such. I just drew a line under it, assigned it to a debt category and just started from scratch.

FinanciallyUnsavvy

I initially didn't like that it made me work from the 1st day of the month either. My pay day is 25th and couldn't get the hang of not being able to have my pay day as "day 1" of the month. To begin with I decided I'd just lie and put payday down as the 1st of the month. That didn't go well!

It took a few attempts but eventually I set up properly - payments going in on the 25th as income for that month. Most of my direct debits come out between the 25th and the 30th anyway, so I just input all category outgoings after I get paid. It all rolls over to the next month anyway, so it doesn't matter.

I.e. today, 24th April, if I open up my YNAB and look at all my categories in April, they'll all be blank, because the numbers were put in the end of March. The totals are still there, but no actual input for April. When I get paid tomorrow I'll go through and add my outgoings into the categories for April, which will then carry on through to May.

blisteringblue

I'm almost the same as financiallyunsavvy, except as I stated earlier I split my wage into 2 entries 1/3 for the month it is paid and 2/3 for the next month.

As this Friday is my consolidation day and also the last Friday of the month I will setup my budget for next month at this point, I enter all my bills and of course the next 1/3 2/3 split of the salary next month and then tick them off as cleared as I move through the month.

To me the budget has to be flexible anyway. We've had a busy month with Easter and relatives over from Australia, we've also paid a hotel for our summer holiday. I will see what it looks like I can claw back as I'm over budget from April at the moment, and whatever I can't claw back will be moved out of my emergency funds pot to balance the books.

Once you get your head around it it is just so simple. I sat their scratching my head first month, but once it clicks, I've pots for all sorts of things from saving for my phoneline (12 months up front saver) to Xmas Savings and next years road tax etc etc.

Brenny

Just got it and had several goes before I "understood" it.

To start with I created my accounts on 23rd with the balances I had in my bank accounts. The budget against all the categories that had already been paid prior to 23 were set to zero.

I used the small amount of credit in my current account to put a budget against the few that it would cover, going forwards. So, when I am paid tomorrow, I will split my salary figure so a small amount is put in April to cover anything else I need to pay for from now to 30 April, and the rest is put into May.

The money can then be allocated to May's budget. It could be made to cover the whole month if you have enough so, in this way, you start building up the advised buffer. When May's salary is paid, the whole amount will be used for June's budget and hopefully a bit of July's, and so on.

Well, that's the way i understand it...:)

bess1234_2

I'm still at the head scratching stage. I don't even know why I don't get it.

I used to have 3bank accounts doing different things. One was savings and all monthly and annual bills . With a pencil I worked it out over 12 months and put a twelfth in every month. The savings acted as a buffer so timing didn't matter as long as over a year it balanced.

The second had monthly living expenses drawn out in cash on a budget worked out in pencil. Into envelopes.

The third was what was left, so if we chose to spend it was written on a list against the balance.

Maybe I just like the simple life. If it ain't broke don't fix it :rotfl:

Now my bank accounts look bad, but my budget looks ok. I think maybe it's recording my repayment of loan into my savings as part of the budget. But it's money I must repay to my emergency savings so I don't want it to be. Maybe we just overspent this month. Maybe it's because we took the spending controls of the pencil and paper away.
I realise this is a different situation to starting to budget or complicated lives, but my life is quite easily budgeted for in a simple non spender kind of way. If my budget changed I used to get my rubber out. I've heard enough good stories about ynab to know its good.

Guess I'm an old fashioned girl. I miss my pencil lol

shellstar

I've been using it since January and I really like it, though it did take a couple of attempts to get my head around it. I still struggle with the credit card line sometimes and keeping that information accurate, but so far I've always been able to sort it out (Just haven't managed to stop messing it up in the first place).

What I did do was run it concurrently with my old system for a couple of months. It meant I could still monitor things the traditional way and stopped any nasty surprises. It also meant I immediately spotted any anomalies on YNAB as I was getting to grips with it. I now don't use my old system at all and am fully YNAB enabled. My friends laugh that I now have 'software' for my budget (they think it's hilarious I budget so obsessively each month) but I'm slowly converting them all!

Good luck with it.

katejo

shellstar wrote: »

I've been using it since January and I really like it, though it did take a couple of attempts to get my head around it. I still struggle with the credit card line sometimes and keeping that information accurate, but so far I've always been able to sort it out (Just haven't managed to stop messing it up in the first place).

What I did do was run it concurrently with my old system for a couple of months. It meant I could still monitor things the traditional way and stopped any nasty surprises. It also meant I immediately spotted any anomalies on YNAB as I was getting to grips with it. I now don't use my old system at all and am fully YNAB enabled. My friends laugh that I now have 'software' for my budget (they think it's hilarious I budget so obsessively each month) but I'm slowly converting them all!

Good luck with it.

What do you mean by the 'Credit card Line'? I wondered how it would work with credit card payments. I pay mine off each month but the amount varies and the type of thing paid for varies