You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

Nikkisun

I got YNAB today and so far from what I've seen it looks great.

The thing I'm struggling with to get my head round is that I get paid my salary once a month but my tax credits are paid weekly. I get that you're not supposed to add the income to your budget until you actually get it but how do I do my outgoings? If I add all my outgoings for the month then obviously it shows my available to budget figure as a minus and it will make it hard to check if I have available funds in any category to spend (check the category not the bank account), so do I update each week by entering the income and then the expenditures due that week?

~Beanie~

Yes, don't enter your expenditure for the month in one go, you update as and when the direct debits etc go out of your account.

Same as you do with income, you enter your tax credits when you actually receive them, not in advance.

belleandthebudget

And as someone pointed out to me, the long term goal of YNAB is to be living off last month's income - when that's the case it doesn't matter when it appears in account because you're living off the buffer that's already there.

I'm no where near there yet but looking forward to it!

Ccarter

I've just found this, it may help:

http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/2014/how-do-i-budget-if-im-paid-fortnightly/

Nikkisun

Thanks - it makes sense, I'm just so used to writing down what I'm expecting for the month and what I have to pay for the month that it took a bit of thinking about to get my head round it!

LavenderGrove

Hi Nikkisun
The YNAB video sessions you can sign up to are really helpful, though they are at odd times. I also signed up for the emails which helped. I watched one video where I think they had week 1, week 2 etc as categories, so allocated money as it came in.
Hope that helps. Strange, but I actually check it every morning and can say I now enjoy budgeting - it's a whole new thing for me.
LG

Nikkisun

LavenderGrove wrote: »

Hi Nikkisun
The YNAB video sessions you can sign up to are really helpful, though they are at odd times. I also signed up for the emails which helped. I watched one video where I think they had week 1, week 2 etc as categories, so allocated money as it came in.
Hope that helps. Strange, but I actually check it every morning and can say I now enjoy budgeting - it's a whole new thing for me.
LG

I know what you mean - I was actually quite excited about adding figures to it this morning (sad I know but I'm a spreadsheet geek!)

timbstoke

Yep, log it as it come in, but for NEXT months income. Money received this week goes towards November's spending.

In the short term, it looks like you're living ridiculously over budget because you're constantly 'borrowing' from next months money. However, in time the amount you borrow should reduce, until finally you're in credit.

Claree__x

timbstoke wrote: »

Yep, log it as it come in, but for NEXT months income. Money received this week goes towards November's spending.

In the short term, it looks like you're living ridiculously over budget because you're constantly 'borrowing' from next months money. However, in time the amount you borrow should reduce, until finally you're in credit.

So if I get child benefit next week I should add it as Income for November? So if I was to use it for fuel where I have no budgeted amount in October it will show overbudget for October but still onbudget for November - is that right?

Can you tell I'm a total novice?

Sorry for crashing your thread OP.

AFK_Matrix

I really wouldn't do as timbstoke suggests as this is against YNAB methodology and doesn't help really in getting to grips with YNAB. If you add your income to November and you are not buffered then you will be overbudgeted for October and thus you can not spend according to your categories which is the whole point of YNAB. You have no idea if you have enough money in the bank if you have overbudgeted.

Claree__x when you get your child benefit next week enter it as Income for October and give it jobs for things that need to be covered before your next paid. Rinse and repeat this with all your income, if one of your goals is to get a buffer together so you can send income to the next month then setup a category called Buffer and add a bit of your income each month to this until you have got enough in there to cover a month of spending.