You need a Budget

pandastyle_3

Hi,

Sorry if this has been posted before but I was wondering if anyone has used You Need A Budget? I've heard great things about it but the website is quite cheesy so thought I would get some feedback from the good people on here!. I just want to get a hold of my finances a bit more and be able to put some money aside for a new kitchen

stalkah

Put simply it's excellent!

I have been trying for the last couple of years to start paying off my overdraft... but every month seemed to be left with nothing...

I started using YNAB at the beginning of March I have now paid off my £2k overdraft and have just over £1k in the bank as credit.

Although £1.5k of that was actually from a house sale I have a feeling that money would have been used by now if it wasn't for ynab

socmwils23

it makes you think long term and not day to day which is a good thing. If used properly you should be able to make a change for the better. The key point to remember though is you can have every bit of software or budget tool in the world but in order to make it wor you do have to stick with it and use willpower.

JKSandy

I have heard it mentioned a couple of times, is it easy to set up?

stalkah

Very easy, make sure you take in as much of the free information they make available too as this really helps

suse*

I have been using it since christmas and it has helped me save loads of money without even trying. You can get a 30 day free trial and I recommend watching the free webinars.

I can send you a voucher for 6 dollars off too if you don't win a free copy by doing a webanar.

I really like the reports as well so you can really get a better idea where everything is going to.

gsix14

I will echo the recommendation for YNAB. I have found it really useful.

You do need to take on board the thinking behind it, the approach to budgeting that they recommend and that the software facilitates .

It works best as a proactive budgeting system, where you set amounts for different categories and then only spend what you have allocated (or make decisions about where to move money from). If you only use it to record spending without paying attention to where you had allocated money then it isn's anywhere near as good.

nappy501

I was intrigued by this, but it doesn't run on Linux.

TartanSaver

I gave the free trial a go, but I couldn't stand it. It seems to be specifically designed not to let you plan into the future - manually inputting entries which will be exactly the same every month for many months is a complete waste of time. It doesn't let you project income. According to the website, this is because [paraphrasing] "anything could happen, you never know. " Well yes, but if I get made redundant, I will have to change my budget accordingly. I shouldn't have to essentially change it every single month on the assumption that I might always be about to become unemployed...

In the introductory videos the software tells me that to plan for fixed costs in the future, I need to work out how many months there are between now and the cost, divide the cost by that number and then put the answer in as a monthly spend. The principle is fine, but why should I pay £30 for software and then get my calculator out?

I was also put off by the idea that living next month on this month's pay was somehow revolutionary. Since the alternatives are being overdrawn every month, or spending capital, it's something I've managed pretty much my whole adult life. And when I've made exceptions that's been done knowingly, usually on capital costs rather than day to day spending.

To each their own though, if it works for you, good luck to you.