You Need A Budget

patman99

I actually started to use YNAB back in 2010 after I was made redundant and needed to keep an eye on the money.
I was so impressed that I did a review of it on Dooyoo and the man behind YNAB spotted-it, signed-up to Dooyoo and sent me a personal message stating how pleased he was that a novice user had found it so easy to pick up and use.

I like the fact that once you have purchased the license you can install it on as many computers as you like & you get a lifetime of updates free.

FireWyrm

patman99 wrote: »

I like the fact that once you have purchased the license you can install it on as many computers as you like & you get a lifetime of updates free.

As far as I can tell, this is not entirely true. You get minor updates for free, but version changes ie, 4 to 5 will be chargeable. However, the application is of such use to me and has quickly become indispensable that barring an outrageous price increase between versions, I will be purchasing the next version outright as required.

MerchantMariner

I'm a recent YNAB convert.

It does take a bit of getting used to but it's fantastic. It forces me to think about the here and now. What am I doing with the money I have? What do I need to spend before I get paid again? What upcoming big expenses do I need to plan for?

In the past, my budgets were done on Excel and were really just fanciful forecasts. "Oooh if I follow this I'll have £Xk in December 2015". But they were quickly forgotten about. It's all well and good making a budget and patting yourself on the back because you'll be rich in two years time, but unless you have a way to track everything and make sure you stick to the budget you'll find yourself overspending.

So now I get my pay, enter it into YNAB, give every pound a job (bills/groceries/spending/debt/emergency fund/into the pot towards future big bills). By doing this, I know that when my car insurance comes due I'll have the money there and can avoid going for the expensive monthly direct debit. When the service is due, the money's already there. Same with professional fees, car tax, gift fund etc.

Concentrating on what I have has been the biggest revolution for me. Definitely recommend.

SeduLOUs

I trialled YNAB and hated it because it's very 'live in the moment' which is exactly what I wanted to avoid.

I understand the concept that you can't budget for your salary because you don't know for definite it's coming, but by the same token, no financial software is going to protect me from falling apart if I lose my job.

I was looking for something new because Microsoft Money isn't getting any support anymore, but it's still working fine, and I find it far more useful.

All of my bills are budgeted and ongoing, as are my wages. Ad-hoc payments such as MOT and car tax are all set in with their annual dates. I can see my cashflow forecast for the next 12 months, and already know now that as long as nothing drastically changes I will have more than enough funds available for my MOT in November.

Yes, I still get the odd surprise expenditure, but I can make adjustments to either the current or a future month's spending to make sure my cashflow is going to stay in the positive.

I'm sure YNAB is useful to some, but living from one month to the next sort of defeats the whole point of it for me.

nellis10

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I trialled YNAB and hated it because it's very 'live in the moment' which is exactly what I wanted to avoid.

I understand the concept that you can't budget for your salary because you don't know for definite it's coming, but by the same token, no financial software is going to protect me from falling apart if I lose my job.

I was looking for something new because Microsoft Money isn't getting any support anymore, but it's still working fine, and I find it far more useful.

All of my bills are budgeted and ongoing, as are my wages. Ad-hoc payments such as MOT and car tax are all set in with their annual dates. I can see my cashflow forecast for the next 12 months, and already know now that as long as nothing drastically changes I will have more than enough funds available for my MOT in November.

Yes, I still get the odd surprise expenditure, but I can make adjustments to either the current or a future month's spending to make sure my cashflow is going to stay in the positive.

I'm sure YNAB is useful to some, but living from one month to the next sort of defeats the whole point of it for me.

I take your point, but I disagree
I have budgeted all my monthly bills for the rest of the year in YNAB, and "forecasted" my wages too - even though I know they may change a little month to month.
I've also worked out when my big one off payments are due and created a note in the category to tell me when...then I work out the number of months until that date and budget a monthly amount to meet that when the time comes.
I can easily update the actual wages etc when they arrive, so that I can see if I have under or over estimated, but generally I overestimate bills and underestimate wages to give me a psychological cushion :cool:

I love YNAB, and being a complete spreadsheet nerd already, am converted to the software. :T

However, it's not for everyone, and as long as you have something that works for you...that's the winning formula!

SeduLOUs

nellis10 wrote: »

I take your point, but I disagree
I have budgeted all my monthly bills for the rest of the year in YNAB, and "forecasted" my wages too - even though I know they may change a little month to month.
I've also worked out when my big one off payments are due and created a note in the category to tell me when...then I work out the number of months until that date and budget a monthly amount to meet that when the time comes.
I can easily update the actual wages etc when they arrive, so that I can see if I have under or over estimated, but generally I overestimate bills and underestimate wages to give me a psychological cushion :cool:

I love YNAB, and being a complete spreadsheet nerd already, am converted to the software. :T

However, it's not for everyone, and as long as you have something that works for you...that's the winning formula!

Perhaps I didn't trial it long enough to make it work for me - Microsoft Money just works outright, but I am always nervous it is going to fail as it's so old and unsupported.

Perhaps when I have some free time in the summer I'll give YNAB another look then. It sounds like I can get it for free as a student, and I absolutely LOVE the interface, I just couldn't get it to work how I wanted it.

FireWyrm

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Perhaps I didn't trial it long enough to make it work for me - Microsoft Money just works outright, but I am always nervous it is going to fail as it's so old and unsupported.

Perhaps when I have some free time in the summer I'll give YNAB another look then. It sounds like I can get it for free as a student, and I absolutely LOVE the interface, I just couldn't get it to work how I wanted it.

You can forward forecast by adding 'uncleared' transactions for known and expected income. I do this, as placeholders for the real money. When the actual money comes in and the entries are imported from the bank, I delete the placeholder and substitute the real transaction along with a note. I have forecast all income and spending until December when I will review the new year and decide budgets from there. Couple this with the likes of MoneyDashboard (an online agregator) and daily texts from the bank and you cant go far wrong in my opinion. I tried Microsoft Money, but couldnt get on with it. It is hard to accept and adapt to change.

johnboyinsole

I too am a recent YNAB convert and was lucky enough to win a free copy whilst doing one of their webinars. Previously I just use to record all my transactions but didn't budget them. This has really focused my mind and it's slightly sad but I actually look forward to allocating my budget each time I get some income and therefore keeps me motivated to paying off debts and saving for things that happen irregularly.


Like everyone else who gets paid mid month, I looked at my monthly direct debits and realised that I had enough from last month's pay to get through the last few days of the current month. I get paid on 20th and have hardly anything debited until 1st of following month. So any spare income I budget to cover the remainder of the current month and then on payday I budget the whole thing to be allocated to the following month. At this point I can budget everything in one go for the whole of next month. Just makes it that little bit easier..... for me anyway!

Cranny44

I think i am going to go with YNAB i havent been able to get full use of the 34 day trial but i think i can hopefully make it work long term for me.

I have managed to find a 20% discount and my electric DD is being reduced by £44 a month so i dont have to work hard to find the money to buy it... Happy Days

marmitesocks

Cranny44 wrote: »

I think i am going to go with YNAB...

I have managed to find a 20% discount and my electric DD is being reduced by £44 a month so i dont have to work hard to find the money to buy it... Happy Days

That sounds great. Please could you share where the 20% discount was?

thanks