You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

Richmc1983

Hi All

I am new to YNAB but i would like to do the following and wanting to know if if it is possible,
I have created a off budget account for myself to keep track on everything that's happening in my ebay account, for example i sold various item's and came to a total of £2000, at present my current balance of £300, I have bought various item's to sell and i would like to make a category for this certain item so i can keep track if i am making profit etc?

I cant seem to be able to view the budget overview in the off budget like the normal budget account and change the categories.


Rich

katejo

Richmc1983 wrote: »

Hi All

I am new to YNAB but i would like to do the following and wanting to know if if it is possible,
I have created a off budget account for myself to keep track on everything that's happening in my ebay account, for example i sold various item's and came to a total of £2000, at present my current balance of £300, I have bought various item's to sell and i would like to make a category for this certain item so i can keep track if i am making profit etc?

I cant seem to be able to view the budget overview in the off budget like the normal budget account and change the categories.


Rich

No you can't do that if the account is off budget. Make it on budget and you can use categories to track your income.

Richmc1983

Hi

Thanks for reply, I have discovered and now created 3 account's and this should work for myself.

Rich

Richmc1983

Good Evening All

Is it possible to view your whole budget for the year?

Just wanted to have a overview for when i review account after 12 months

nyermen

My first thought was the reports, but I think you're right - I don't see a way to show budget amounts, just the expenditures.

I have two suggestions.
Easy one:
I set my budget for a year (ie. As annual payments are then divided by 12), which means my annual average expenditure will give a close match to the budget for the year (except savings category). This can be got from the reports view.

Long winded option (but will give the numbers):
The closest I could get to for budget data is to export the budget and tweak it in excel. What I did:
1) Select "Budget" first (to get to the budget view, then file menu - export, and select "Export Budget to CSV".
2) Open the CSV, to see all budget history.
3) Deleted the dates I didnt want (I go back to 2012).
4) Sorted by Category (column
5) Used Subtotal to do the final maths (At each change in Category, use function sum, to add subtotal to 'Budgeted', 'Outflows', 'Category Balance')
6) Switched to "Level 2" (click the "2" in the 1-2-3 on the left).
7) Result is the budgets by category, for the dates chosen.

Sorry it's convoluted, only method I could work out...

Bublin1

Just a little update from me...


So I've almost finished the trial period which means I have done a full months budgeting (was paid today) and it's looking very good.


I have £170 spare so I've decided to use that to make a start on a buffer. :T


This is in addition to doubling my loan payment and adding extra money to rainy day funds. :money:


Yes, I could also use that £170 towards my loan but I 'may' need to dip into it for my dd's birthday party but so far I'm on budget for that (I decided to treat her to a bouncy castle and professional face painter for her party).


:j


Side note....I found I was making little errors by forgetting to look at the Balance column. I was adding full funds to categories that I hadn't fully spent in and didn't want to add anymore than I needed to.

Pixie5740

Richmc1983 wrote: »

Good Evening All

Is it possible to view your whole budget for the year?

Just wanted to have a overview for when i review account after 12 months

Do you mean looking at the previous 12 months budget or forecasting the next 12 months budget?

Nix143

Carrot wrote: »

Hi Nix,

My 10% off code is http://ynab.refr.cc/7Z2JJ63

But have you done the online classes yet? I won my copy of YNAB in a live Webinar.

Saying that, even after just 2 weeks of using it I would now recommend it to everyone even at full price.

Hi Carrot, thanks for that - I have a busy weekend ahead of me

Richmc1983

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Do you mean looking at the previous 12 months budget or forecasting the next 12 months budget?

Previous last 12 month's

Zwoog

I love YNAB. I've just bought it having had it on trial for a month. Even in this short time, it has really helped me to understand my spending habits, and I've realised with horror how much I am (was !) wasting.

Totally recommend it, although as has been pointed out by others it does take a little bit of effort to get to grips with it. Definitely worth persevering though.

Here's a 10% off link for anyone interested:

ynab.refr.cc/ZGM64D9