You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

CP2016

YNAB does loads of free classes - perhaps sign up for a couple just while you're getting started?

JustAboutManaging

Thank you both - I am halfway to what you have suggested Hiddenshadow, but perhaps I made it too complicated for myself - bills are budgeted for and I'm waiting for them to 'ungrey' so I check them as cleared tomorrow, but today's vets fees and overspend in the supermarket weren't, so at the moment I have nowhere to 'rebudget' from and have amended YNAB so they are the budged figures as I don't like the red bits!

I think the old version was better as you say for allocating, I get CB and TC once every four weeks, so it's a moveable feast, whereas the bills aren't! x

louby40

My main current account has been running slightly overdrawn but I’ve just paid money in to put it back in the black.

I’ve added it into YNAB but the £120 is saying it’s To Be Budgeted - whereas there is no money to be budgeted.

How do I rectify this? Totally confused!

Edited : should have said current account not credit card??? I must be tired

hiddenshadow

I think you need to budget £120 to the credit card, to reflect the fact that you're paying the balance. Your budgeted and available numbers for the credit card should be the same. If you click on the credit card line it should tell you that you're going to have £0 debt this month.

(I might be incorrect as I haven't used nYNAB in a while, but I believe that's how it works.)

Frogletina

louby40 wrote: »

My main current account has been running slightly overdrawn but I’ve just paid money in to put it back in the black.

I’ve added it into YNAB but the £120 is saying it’s To Be Budgeted - whereas there is no money to be budgeted.

How do I rectify this? Totally confused!

Where did the money come from which you added back to your current account?

If it is new income then it should in 'to be budgeted' and can be added to whatever categories you wish - possibly the categories you used which made your current account overdrawn, but not necessarily.

It it came from savings accounts which you have on budget, then it should be a transfer to your current account and will not show as money to be budgeted

frogletina

ragz_2

I got started with YNAB a few days ago. All set up, everything reconciled. Getting all excited about checking my bank and updating ynab! Have read the whole thread over the last few days. This may be my new favourite thing! DH is dubious he thinks it will just make us depressed at how poor we are. However I deal with all the money and I feel this will give me a better sense of control. DHbis self employed and earnings come in randomly and go out as expenses so this app should really help us keep track. My income is weekly, 4 weekly and monthly and I have never managed to create a written or excel budget that can accurately deal with that. Some points of the month we have £1000+ in the bank and other points wenare overdrawn. I can see just how ynab is going to make all the random pay timings irrelevant while also giving me more occasions to play with it! I've always tried to forecast and failed miserably, this is a whole new ball game!

zippygeorgeandben

I'd love to see an actual live YNAB in action to see if it works and not just a demonstration guide.

hiddenshadow

The free trial is for 34 days so you can try it out for a month of budgeting and see how it works for you.

There are also various videos on youtube for YNAB (by the company themselves or others) if you want to see others using it.

DrSpendLittle

I’ve been using YNAB since mid August and I absolutely love it.

My financial life revolves around it. I don’t spend based on my bank balance, I spend based on my ynab categories and the jobs I’ve given the ££s.

It’s super flexible, so if you need to move money between categories in any given month, you can. For example, you can take £20 from the fuel category to put in the groceries category if you, say, ordered an unplanned takeaway and had spent less on fuel than anticipated. Speaking from experience :rotfl:

It also allows you to do budgets months ahead - I’ve actually done monthly budgets to December 2018 to indulge myself in my debt free / emergency fund building plan And, because the budgets are flexible, you can chop and change your categories and the money assigned to them as they happen in real time, like when you have unexpected tooth breakages and new boilers to buy. Again, speaking from experience :rotfl:

If you’re a visual person, like me, who loves to ‘see’ your money, I couldn’t recommend ynab enough.

Some people use a simple spreadsheet that works for them, and that’s great. But I like the app and being able to use it on the go on my phone.

If you buy it, don’t forget to budget for the international transaction fee and international debit card purchase fee that your bank may change. It cost me £38.79 in total for the annual subscription.

DSL

ragz_2

Drspendlittle how did you go about doing a forecast without messing up your current budget? Did you do it separately? I'm desperate to try it, but I know it's against the rules of the method and I don't want to mess up my lovely reconciled and budgeted to zero budget!