You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

AliBee16

I am also a YNAB fan, and I get paid weekly, and get working tax credits weekly. As long as you stick with the principle of allocating your income to what needs to come out that week, you can't go wrong. It actually should make it easier to work it all out. If you have bills coming up and no income, you can allocate well in advance (a good tip is to allocate the money you have to as many bills and neccessities as you can in advance)

MoodyMel

It sounds to me like a product that will work better for those with larger incomes. Well at least those that are able to cover bills in advance of them being due.

How would I start with it if I am only just managing to pay bills that are due right now?

YORKSHIRELASS

Oh dear. February has been a disaster. For various reasons (both kids with flu/work being very busy/the boiler packing up/an eye infection) I just havent kept on top of YNAB. Well, actually none of these things are really excuses are they?

Consequently I have gone massively into the red on several categories - which just shows how well it normally works for me and how much I need this software!

So I am starting March with some serious adjusting to do, luckily I have done some overtime so that clears a lot of the red. The boiler still isnt fixed but I have £400 sitting in my emergency fund for that so for once I am not panicking.

AliBee16

That's okay as well MoodyMel. You can just cover what you can with the income you have.

Bublin1

tizerbelle wrote: »

I paid full whack for it - honestly the best £38.60 ($60) I ever spent and I don't regret not waiting for a sale on Steam in the slightest.

If you attend some of the live webinars - you could win a free copy so if you are likely to be awake at the times the classes are scheduled for, you could participate in one. If you're lucky, you win a free copy; If not, you've been taught by a YNAB expert!

£38.60 does sound a lot better that $60 and an amount I don't mind paying for - that would come out of my Spending Money category! And yes, there is a 10% off code that can be found on the reddit forum - it's a sticky thread and you just click on the next referral link. I've tried it and the links work.


I've sat through 3 webinars so far. One was at 11.30pm-12.30pm...still haven't won. I've got 23 days left so I need to be picked already :rotfl:. Most are at very awkward times of the day for us here in the UK.


Firewyrm - thanks for replying to my post, I've got it now.


I also make my debt repayments as bill categories and I've also created an extra category for Debt Overpayment - that way makes more sense to me and keeps things neat. I don't want to see red numbers.

andyfromotley

It was definitely cheaper in Steam a couple of weeks ago, so worth checking there. I got it free as i'm a student.

Paid today so spent a bit of time allocating to all my categories for the first full month, was quite generous to some of my RDF's, feeling all smug until i realised that i had over budgeted by £200!!! Planning on spending some time shuffling it again later!

Just one question. i have my cc showing as pre YNAB debt. I want to make a payment do i just transfer from my current account to that pre YNAB debt?

Bublin1

Oh yes, it's £29.99 on Steam. Is this their normal price? It doesn't say it's at a sale price.

andyfromotley

Hi all,

So quite a long stint on it tonight. First of all i am reconciled!!!
I Printed off my statement and ticked them of the statement as i cleared them on YNAB, i tried doing it with my internet banking page open but found it difficult as they appear in slightly different order in each one. Really useful as i found 3 things that i hadn't inputted on YNAB, two card spends which i should have inputted (although i didn't have the iPhone app at that time which makes doing it on the spot pretty simple) and a take for paypal fees which the did e mail me about. Must remember to input that as soon as i get the e mail. Anyway it worked for me and when they were inputted it reconciled exactly whoo!!

I tried an import earlier but the dates (american -v- english) caused problems. Im sure theres a simple fix for that so i did it by printing off and i liked it.

Sadly i have overspent by £50 this month. Thanks for your helpful post earlier wynn, i'm just letting it come off next months available to budget as i have no council tax or water and i don't want to deplete my RDF's (although i had earmarked those for additional debt repayment so its a bit of a bummer!) So all in all for my first (part) month of using it i couldnt be happier. I'm a convert.

Now to really focus on those category balances for march and hopefully underspend on a few!!

Red-Squirrel_2

Well, I just won the free software on one of the live classes! I'm as excited as if I'd won the lottery!

Finally, post night-shift insomnia pays off, i have to be up for work in three hours but I don't even care.

andyfromotley

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Well, I just won the free software on one of the live classes! I'm as excited as if I'd won the lottery!

Finally, post night-shift insomnia pays off, i have to be up for work in three hours but I don't even care.

Get IN......!!!!!!!!!!!!!