YNAB 25% off summer sale

runforlife

Thanks Fyrwrm! Top Dollar!! I have been waiting for this since missing out on the 75% January offer. Now is the right time to do this Perfect, especially after Mrs RFL has been made redundant as of today.

tabby_cats_mum

Spend-a-holic wrote: »

YNAB is currently £7.49 on Steam:)

Was that just a one day only offer?

Spend-a-holic

It was on offer for a few hours only I think. When I bought my copy there was only 3 hours remaining on the flash sale.

runforlife

It's the last day of the YNAB sale today. The £7.49 was a 'flash' sale that * could * be repeated at some time today but then again may not. It's a great price even at £22.49

moohound

watching steam with interest today, downloaded the free trial and having a play with it

tabby_cats_mum

I know time is getting on and the sale will end soon but I just can't decide if I should go for YNAB or not.

I've four current accounts (for rewards) each with various direct debits, how easy is it to use YNAB in these circumstances?

hohum

tabby_cats_mum wrote: »

I know time is getting on and the sale will end soon but I just can't decide if I should go for YNAB or not.

I've four current accounts (for rewards) each with various direct debits, how easy is it to use YNAB in these circumstances?

I have four 'on budget' accounts, it's simple enough. What you'll find is that YNAB doesn't care where your money is stored, it's about how you handle your money eg the budget categories. You can transfer money between your accounts as much as you like, this is tracked as a transfer but it doesn't come out of the budget.

Not sure if I'm being clear.... your accounts are the pots you store money in. YNAB doesn't care how many pots you have, you just need to tell it how much money is in your pots (by entering the correct account balances). YNAB is focused on what envelopes you put your pot moneys in. So you might have £10 each in four pots (accounts) and just one envelope with £40 for food written on it. The idea is that before you make a purchase you look at how much is in the envelope, not the pots.

Clear as mud!

The scheduler would be useful for you, to keep track of direct debits. You can set this up for each account. You can also labelall your budget categories with things like 'electricity £50 1st) to help you keep track.

And hey, while the sale is attractive you could still do the 30day trial, attend some classes (with a chance of winning a free copy) and get a referral from an existing user which will get you a few quid off. If you're not sure, why not wait and trial - for the sake of saving a few pounds I'd have a play around with it first.

FireWyrm

tabby_cats_mum wrote: »

I know time is getting on and the sale will end soon but I just can't decide if I should go for YNAB or not.

I've four current accounts (for rewards) each with various direct debits, how easy is it to use YNAB in these circumstances?

YNAB doesnt care which accounts you have or where your money is stored. It cares only about the sum-total of the 'on budget' accounts. If you dont wish to have an account on-budget, you can track that off budget and any changes will not affect it. If the account is on-budget, then all money in that and all accounts is fair game for the budget.

When you are on-budget in YNAB, you should care only about the category totals because that tells you what you have to spend. If you want to spend some money, you have to mentally allocate it to a category and reconcile it later with the real category. Most of us have a mobile app which gives us the category totals at any time. If I want a coffee, that comes under my 'ad-hoc' budget. If I have zero in there, then I cant have that coffee...or, I need to take money from somewhere else to cover it. Since I know my budget it tight, I know that there is no other place to take it from and therefore, dont buy the coffee.

In reality, I have categories that are allocated to several banks, so I know for instance, that if I did happen to want that coffee afterall and I did happen to have money in the category, I know it comes out of the BANK A account in reality because that's where all the money for the ad-hoc category sits.

You can reconcile accounts easily by downloading a QIF or OFX file from your bank showing your transactions. When you import it, YNAB matches it against any transactions already registered. In reality, YNAB is your absolute up-to-date register because it will be showing transactions well ahead of the bank. If I did buy that coffee and I entered it into YNAB at the till via my phone, I know that tomorrow, I may not be able to have another coffee because my category balance is depleted. This happens long before BANK A catches up with my real transaction history.

tabby_cats_mum

What I really want to get away from is balance checking,
I'm worried I'll go wrong somewhere and one of the accounts will end up overdrawn. Can you reassure me this won't happen:( ??

tabby_cats_mum

Plus will I be able to ditch my multiple sheet spreadsheet which has taken me years to perfect?