YNAB 25% off summer sale

FireWyrm

Just to let you all know, Steam are cutting the price of YNAB by 25% until 30th June to £22.49.

If you have been holding off or prevaricating over whether to get YNAB, now would be the time.

Linky here : http://store.steampowered.com/app/227320/

If you dont have YNAB and you are wondering why or if you should, you can download the trial from www.youneedabudget.com.

I dont often promote commercial software, but in this case, it has changed the way I manage my finances. Since I have had it, I have paid off over £5000 worth of debt and am now down below my magic £10K marker. It isnt just a program, it is a way of life. It changes your entire perspective on financial management and I cannot now imagine life without it. If that sounds overly dramatic, it is not. It is quite literally the truth.

If you are still unconvinced, just get the trial. It took me about 10 minutes to realise that this was the method I wanted to use going forwards.

A review from the hardcore gamers on steam

YNAB is quickly becoming one of my favorite games. It is a real-time augmented-reality resource management simulator. Every time you earn money in real life, you get the same amount of resources to manage in the game. You decide which pools you want to allocate them to, based on the things you have to spend your own money on, the things you would like to spend your money on, and ultimately the things you would like to save your money for later. Those pools are depleted throughout the game by various costs to your kingdom that reflect your real life spending and bills.

There is a companion mobile app, allowing you to continue playing the game anywhere you go. Stopped for lunch? Use the mobile app to enter how much you spent for lunch, and see immediate effects to your gameplay. Did you allocate enough resources to your "Dining" pool? If not, you will have to reduce one of your other pools to free up enough resources to cover the difference. You can even check your resource allocation from the mobile app to help decide if you really want to make that purchase, or if it will negatively impact the game too much.

YNAB's playing field is randomly generated on start up, based on your actual debts and account balances, so the game is unique to each player, and no two games are exactly the same. While every game is different, there is a high probability that your kingdom will start out with some degree of debt. Your quest is to reduce that debt as quickly as possible, inch far enough ahead that your incoming resources are being allocated to pools for future months, and restore harmony to the land by setting aside small, manageable portions of each resource-gathering period to cover big dips into resource pools that you know (or sometimes don't know) are coming months from now.

This is a game that could take months or years to play, but it is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I have ever had. My kingdom started out well over 6,000 units in the red. Figuring out how to split my resources took a week or two to get right, but the beauty of this game design is that you can reassign your resources from pool to pool, so there is flexibility built-in if you find you need to change how you're doing something. After a couple of months (and thanks in large part to a resource gathering period that included my tax refund), that amount has nearly been cut in half. Based on my estimates, I think I will comfortably have my kingdom out of debt within half a year.

Even though it seems like the game would end there, the open world design makes it infinitely playable. Gameplay at that point is generally the same, but your quest changes to raising your kingdom's value as high as you can, while continuing to manage the costs incurred within your kingdom. Having eliminated your kingdom's starting loss, you find yourself with a lot more resources to allocate, and you can start applying those towards some of the various DLC packs, like Dream Vacation, New Car, and Early Retirement.

The graphics are quite nice, well out-classing games like Microsoft Excel 2013: GOTY Edition. Co-op gameplay is possible if you are married or sharing expenses with a significant other. Community support is extensive, with many players offering gameplay strategies, and detailed video and text walkthrus from the developer. This is one game that can literally make your life better.

LionessInWinter

Hi, thanks for posting this . How long have you been using ynab ? Congrats on lowering your debt.

FireWyrm

LionessInWinter wrote: »

Hi, thanks for posting this . How long have you been using ynab ? Congrats on lowering your debt.

I flirted with it back in November and walked away but in January (yes, resolution time) I decided to give it another try. I mentally wiped the slate clean and went from scratch. This time it clicked and it is now working the right way. I was doing relatively well using Excel having cleared the best part of £10K previously, but YNAB finally turbo charged the process. It just works right from the beginning. It is not just a budgeting tool, it is a total philosophy which is supported and enabled by the software.

I am currently running a grocery experiment where I am using YNAB to sub-compartmentalise the shopping and determine exactly how much is being spent on all categories. I want to see, over a period of time how much on average is being spent on various categories in order to understand and forecast the future more efficiently. This is obviously pretty extreme for most purposes and I wouldnt for a second suggest that everyone should do this regularly, but it is an example of the possible insights that the software can provide beyond the casual useage.



And an incomplete graph from last month showing the kind of information you can use to draw conclusions.

Bublin1

FireWyrm, I only have an 8inch tablet at the moment and no PC. Do you think it's compatible with a small tablet?

FireWyrm

Bublin1 wrote: »

FireWyrm, I only have an 8inch tablet at the moment and no PC. Do you think it's compatible with a small tablet?

I'm not actually sure since I dont have a tablet. You can certainly use the mobile version of the App but that is not the full featured desktop programme at all. I have a small 10" netbook which runs the full desktop version very well indeed and just use the mobile phone app to register transactions as they happen. You really would need the full desktop version to get all the benefit of the software that you are paying for.

sourcrates

FireWyrm wrote: »

I am currently running a grocery experiment where I am using YNAB to sub-compartmentalise the shopping and determine exactly how much is being spent on all categories. I want to see, over a period of time how much on average is being spent on various categories in order to understand and forecast the future more efficiently.

And an incomplete graph from last month showing the kind of information you can use to draw conclusions.

So..............you wouldn't say you had too much time on your hands here Fire !!!!!! Lol

FireWyrm

sourcrates wrote: »

So..............you wouldn't say you had too much time on your hands here Fire !!!!!! Lol

I'm usually a busy bee. It doesnt actually take that long, about 2 hours a month to calculate the categories and input it (probably less, the analysis and playing why did I do that, takes the actual time). I was actually doing this on and off last year using a database and excel, but I want to keep a track over a number of months and perhaps longer.

cydney65

Thanks FireWyrm. I've been running a basic spreadsheet loosly based on the YNAB principles for a couple of months but, to be honest. having to redo the formulas every month was annoying me. I downloaded the trial from the site and just WOW it clicked.

Downloaded it from the Steam site and now happily budgeting this month and next month. :beer:

Spend-a-holic

YNAB is currently £7.49 on Steam:)

ShirePiskie

Yay, thanks Spend-a-holic! Purchased!!!

AFK_Matrix

Bublin1 wrote: »

FireWyrm, I only have an 8inch tablet at the moment and no PC. Do you think it's compatible with a small tablet?

Hey there if the tablet is running Windows 8 then you can run the YNAB full desktop app, I just purchased a Dell Venue Pro 8 for just this reason. So I can now happily sit on the sofa or anywhere and play with my budget lol (sad I know, but YNAB is addictive like that!) But if your running Andoird or its an Ipad etc then you can't run the full YNAB software. Your only choice is to get a desktop or laptop I'm afraid.