You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

FireWyrm

joedenise wrote: »

No idea why it works but it just does - probably because you think more about what you are buying and how much you're spending.

It probably has more to do with actually paying attention. We are all guilty of it. We whip out the credit/debit card and just swipe it for whatever we want and never have to think about the consequences because there is always (usually) more credit where that came from. YNAB makes you live in the now, it makes you only spend the money you have and there is no more sticking it on the credit card and pretending it didnt happen. This is probably the major change and it is a major one too. YNAB doesnt just make you live within your means, it smacks you around the face with the harsh reality that you are actually very very skint most of the time.

Previously, I used to just buy kindle books on my shiny Amazon credit card. It was dead convenient, they even provide a 'one click' facility that makes it so easy. It wasnt until I deregistered this card and made it so that I HAD to buy kindle books on my debit card because I wanted it to show up in YNAB as a budget category that I realised how many £1, £2, £5 books I actually bought over the course of a month. When I imposed a category limit of £15 for kindle books, I was forced to consider that I already have nearly 1000 books on my kindle, and realistically speaking, I could never actually read them all even if I read all day every day for the next 3 years! Now, to be fair, a large chunk were freebies that I comb the best-seller list for, but there must be a lot of £1 books in there too. Even conservatively speaking, I must have spent £500 on books in the last year.

Now, some would say that since I dont watch TV, £500 for entertainment in a year was quite justified, but it really isnt when you look at the numbers. I could have paid off £500 of debts in that time, not dug deeper into the hole.

YNAB brings home the reality of life. Stuff happens and we dont have the cash to cover it. Mostly, we just run to the CC to deal with it, but that is no way to live. For most of our history, money was a precious commodity to be carefully husbanded and hoarded but something terrible happened to us about 30 years ago and we are seeing the results on this forum.

YNAB isnt just about watching every penny, or even about categorisations or forecasts, it is about changing the way you work at a fundamental level. If you aint got it, you cant spend it. If you spend it and you didnt have it, then you have to find it. If you cant find it this month, you have to find it next month which means less to spend on what you need to. It is practically impossible to slide any further down the slope using this system because the truth hurts when you cant buy that thing you wanted because you spent it last month...and there we have it...YNAB injects pain into consumerism. You actually feel unhappy and (for me) this borders on feeling actually squeemish inside when I get it wrong and have to whack-a-mole to fix it.

Westie983

lilahloo wrote: »

I'm really confused and I'd been doing so well until now.

I've just reconciled my accounts.

My bank account, credit card and ynab account balances all match however it's now showing I have £47.20 available to budget for March. This is greyed out.

I have £0 available to budget for April - I get paid tomorrow.

If I add £47.20 to a category for March it shows in red as overbudgeted by £47.20 for April.

Does anyone know what I've done????

check your imported dates, its greyed out as it fell into march and wasn't budgeted and now its April its greyed out, you can go back into march by clicking on march at the top then find the budget the money then take it out, but using the - button, it will then move it over to April to budget, I think this will work, as it works if you get income in April but want to transfer it to May, I also take funds out of one category and move it if another is short till I get paid again...

hope this helps....

andyfromotley

Huuuuuge reconciliation to do today. Wish me luck!!

Mysteek

Well after umming an aahing for some time I've finally downloaded the free version of YNAB to see if it will work for me. As I only did this yesterday, I am still working out how to set everything up and just wondered about credit cards. I have 2 credit cards, I don't use either for spending I'm just paying them off, and they're both on 0% so don't need to worry about interest. Therefore, can I keep these cards 'off budget', create a 'budget' for the payments each month and just move that money into the credit cards when that's paid.

Apologies if this is a daft question or its been asked before

Pixie5740

Put your credit cards on budget and categorise them as Pre-YNAB debt. There's a YNAB tutorial specifically for credit cards. You can sign up for a webinar or just watch it on YouTube.

andyfromotley

Get in!! Reconciled.

I keep my CC debt off budget after advice on here, it all just looks a bit tidier to me. I never spend on it though.

joedenise

Agree with Pixie about watching the credit card webinar.

I would also advise watching the setting up one as well. In fact, it's probably a good idea to watch the series of them. You don't need to watch them before you get going but I definitely found them useful.

Denise

lilahloo

Thanks westie and rogue.

It's the first month and I did a lot of whack a moleing. I think I somehow managed to move money around categories in the wrong month, also confused by having an inflow in April.

I went back to a saved version from after I last reconciled, started again inputting all transactions and managed to get to 0 to budget for both months.

Salary has now gone in for April and budget done.

I'm going to buy the software as my trial runs out tomorrow and I can't go back to pre ynab life!

katejo

lilahloo wrote: »

Thanks westie and rogue.

It's the first month and I did a lot of whack a moleing. I think I somehow managed to move money around categories in the wrong month, also confused by having an inflow in April.

I went back to a saved version from after I last reconciled, started again inputting all transactions and managed to get to 0 to budget for both months.

Salary has now gone in for April and budget done.

I'm going to buy the software as my trial runs out tomorrow and I can't go back to pre ynab life!

Have you attended any of the live classes to see if you can win a free membership? Alternatively do you know that you can get a small discount by using a member's code? You would be welcome to use mine if you needed one. http://ynab.refr.cc/PR8DJ7N

Frogletina

Not happy today.

Just had my latest gas and electricity bills and I am in debit of around £300. I know why my gas bill is higher (problems with my central heating) and I'll have a repair bill to pay for sorting that out too!

I'm thinking of clearing the debt in full because the extra amount being asked for via direct debit will take ages to get the bills back into credit.

So, I will have to raid my savings account to do that. Haven't yet built up enough in my emergency fund yet and my buffer is under £10 so far...

frogletina