You Need A Budget

lemanie

FireWyrm wrote: »

I have to ration my checking of accounts and budgets to once a week, or I spend all my time staring at it.

Snap :rotfl:

happybunny86

I'd really love to use this but only have an iPad. If I set the software up on my mums computer could I maintain on my phone does anyone know?

lemanie

Sorry I can't help HappyBunny; I don't have an iPad or a smart phone so I've no idea but hopefully someone will be along that can help or you could ask in the Forums on the YNAB site?

nellis10

happybunny86 wrote: »

I'd really love to use this but only have an iPad. If I set the software up on my mums computer could I maintain on my phone does anyone know?

My understanding is, that as long as your mum's computer and you ipad have access to dropbox, then you should be able to set up the budget on the computer and use the ipad for you tracking.

Someone will be along to correct me if I am wrong...but why not give it a whirl...download the app and the trial version and see if it works...I have the app on my android phone and computer.

hohum

nellis10 wrote: »

My understanding is, that as long as your mum's computer and you ipad have access to dropbox, then you should be able to set up the budget on the computer and use the ipad for you tracking.

Someone will be along to correct me if I am wrong...but why not give it a whirl...download the app and the trial version and see if it works...I have the app on my android phone and computer.

You can use for tracking but what you can't do is adjust the budget categories. Your mum's computer would need to have dropbox installed and access to the internet. I'd say it's possible but ideally you'd have access to borrow her computer whenever you got income, as then you could properly allocate the spends etc.

AFK_Matrix

Hi happybunny86,

Yes it will work on your mum pc as long as it has internet access and you setup a dropbox account, this is free though so not a biggy.

So install YNAB on your mums pc and it will help you through the process of setting up dropbox. You then just need to get YNAB on your phone and point it to the dropbox account. But just realise that if your on your phone and you see that you have overspent or you need a new category that you will have to get onto your mums pc to do this.

I know they are developing a better app for the Ipad which has more features and is closer to the PC based software so that could be good, not sure when its being released though.

lumpyspaceprincess

Cranny44 wrote: »

Sent you a PM

Cranny - would you be able to let me know how / where you got it cheaper? I'd really appreciate it!

Raquela

I adore YNAB, and it has saved my (financial bacon) a lot.

One thing that I haven't seen posted in this thread - it is really really worth doing the webinars on the YNAB website - apart from the fact that they are really really helpful in getting the software set up correctly for you and learning how it all works, they also give away a free copy of the software on each webinar. I think the software is more than worth the price personally, but I'd sit through a helpful webinar for the chance of getting it for free!

I run YNAB on my mac and my phone, and have it syncing through the 'cloud' so both are always up to date as long as I've got an internet connection (it uses Dropbox for this). I get paid on the 27th of the month, and get that some people find it frustrating that you have to run the budget on a calendar month - but this is part of the YNAB philosophy. The whole idea is that you try to get to the point where you use the money you got paid in the previous month to fund the next month - so as a basic example, I shouldn't start using the wages I get on the 27th UNTIL the 1st of the next month. Even though it's only a few days, I haven't quite got to this point yet, but I'm getting there slowly!

Someone upthread also said they didn't like it because you could only really deal with the month ahead. Yes, you budget only for that month, but your categories can roll over. For example, in my budget I have a 'rainy day' section with categories for my water bill, contents insurance, and other such things that I only have to pay for at certain times of the year. The money I budget in a section just rolls over each month so it becomes a lump sum when the bill is due. For longer term savings I have another master section with categories for various things ( I also put my £ goal in the name so I know what figure I'm aiming for - e.g. 'Emergency Fund (1000)').

Credit cards are a little more complicated, but there is a specific video tutorial for those (and I think a webinar too, though I could be wrong about that) - I take the 'don't spend on credit card' route personally!

I'd be happy to try and answer any questions anyone has about the software. I definitely don't manage to stick to my budget 100% every month, but that's the beauty of it - you can easily adjust things as you need to.

lemanie

Raquela wrote: »

it is really really worth doing the webinars on the YNAB website

I watched a couple of video tutorials and cleared up a couple of queries in the forum because I was too impatient to wait for the next webinar that was on at a convenient time. I got a free copy because I am a part time student. The emails have been helpful in an ongoing way but I had no trouble at all with the set up.

happybunny86

Just a quick ynab question... Managed to get my boyfriend to agree to let his laptop live at my house until we move in together so I can start my ynab journey.

Over the next couple of months I'm moving house and have the balance of my holiday to pay off. It's going to be a strange few months ensuring I have enough money to pay off the holiday balance, my last months rent and bills for my house on my own and my rent/deposit for my new house with my boyfriend and bills. I'm struggling to work out with ynab if there is a way to forecast what I'll need over those months to make sure I roll it over in the ynab budget. At the moment I'm just living months to month in ynab and know I'm not meant to budget money I don't have but how do I work out how much I need to rollover so it's there why I need it? It's making my head hurt!!!