You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

SeduLOUs

What is the 'error'? Perhaps we can advise/make suggestions.

Do you have any backups you can load? When you are actively working on the budget screen the programs backs up automatically every few minutes.

Is your budget saved locally or in dropbox?

Frogletina

SeduLOUs wrote: »

What is the 'error'? Perhaps we can advise/make suggestions.

Do you have any backups you can load? When you are actively working on the budget screen the programs backs up automatically every few minutes.

Is your budget saved locally or in dropbox?

It is saved locally - when I go to open it there is an error message which says

Error loading budget. The ymeta file could not be opened.

There is an option on there to contact support or try later, so I have contacted them.

I have managed to get into an old budget from 11th March, but not the current one

frogeltina

SeduLOUs

Try this?

https://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/restore-your-budget-from-dropbox

Frogletina

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Try this?

https://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/restore-your-budget-from-dropbox

Thanks

I have to go out now, will try later

frogletina

LondonGirl252

Thanks Katejo and Sedulous. I'll have a look at lunch and think about taking it out.


So do you guys leave all future months completely blank until the time comes? Or do you build out the budget and then let the income catch it up each month?


I like the idea of having the amount of annual bills in the category name, that's a good one.


Another question. Rolling with the punches... I Like it but by doing this and adjusting your budget throughout the month you don't get to track which categories you overspend on if you adjust the budget as you go along..... do I need to be less of an accountant?!

SeduLOUs

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

So do you guys leave all future months completely blank until the time comes? Or do you build out the budget and then let the income catch it up each month?

I like the idea of having the amount of annual bills in the category name, that's a good one.

Another question. Rolling with the punches... I Like it but by doing this and adjusting your budget throughout the month you don't get to track which categories you overspend on if you adjust the budget as you go along..... do I need to be less of an accountant?!

Basically put all of the money you have right now into your bank accounts on YNAB so the money becomes available to budget. Budget that money as far as you can into the future - if you're starting out you may only be able to budget for the first half of the month. You may be able to budget a full month's expenses. If you're lucky you might have more, and then you can decide whether to budget further into the future, or to just budget one month ahead and put the remainder into a 'savings' category.

My long term 'goal' is to have enough of a buffer that I can be fully budgeted for all of my bills 6 months in advance with money I actually have on hand.

Rolling with the punches. I struggled with this a bit but it's not an overspend if you only spend what you've budgeted in a category. It's totally fine to change your mind about your budget amounts part way through the month!.

I'm one of those people that never budgets into entertainment or fast food categories at the beginning of a month - if I put a budget amount in there at the beginning of the month it's guaranteed I will spend it. Instead I'll put the spare into my savings categories and if necessary will 'borrow' a bit back by reallocating it occasionally to pay for a treat - the net result is usually the same as if I had budgeted for it in the first place, but it means I have to make a concious decision to reduce the amount of money I have allocated to savings to pay for a meal rather than just immediately ordering takeout without a second thought.

joedenise

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

Thanks Katejo and Sedulous. I'll have a look at lunch and think about taking it out.


So do you guys leave all future months completely blank until the time comes? Or do you build out the budget and then let the income catch it up each month?
I only do one month at a time; anything not used goes into my ISA as I am less likely to touch it there!


I like the idea of having the amount of annual bills in the category name, that's a good one.
I don't put the annual amount in the category I've just worked out how much a month I need to put away and that is the figure next to the category. I'm not sure the annual figure would be much use really unless you also have the monthly figure.


Another question. Rolling with the punches... I Like it but by doing this and adjusting your budget throughout the month you don't get to track which categories you overspend on if you adjust the budget as you go along..... do I need to be less of an accountant?!

"Rolling with the punches" is one of the rules of YNAB so make use of it if you need to. It makes you accountable for where you spend your money. If you want to check where you're overspending you could use the Notes feature to show that you've money into a category from another one in order to "Role with the punches". Hope that makes sense.

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Basically put all of the money you have right now into your bank accounts on YNAB so the money becomes available to budget. Budget that money as far as you can into the future - if you're starting out you may only be able to budget for the first half of the month. You may be able to budget a full month's expenses. If you're lucky you might have more, and then you can decide whether to budget further into the future, or to just budget one month ahead and put the remainder into a 'savings' category.

My long term 'goal' is to have enough of a buffer that I can be fully budgeted for all of my bills 6 months in advance with money I actually have on hand.

Rolling with the punches. I struggled with this a bit but it's not an overspend if you only spend what you've budgeted in a category. It's totally fine to change your mind about your budget amounts part way through the month!.

Agree with all of this.

I'm one of those people that never budgets into entertainment or fast food categories at the beginning of a month - if I put a budget amount in there at the beginning of the month it's guaranteed I will spend it. Instead I'll put the spare into my savings categories and if necessary will 'borrow' a bit back by reallocating it occasionally to pay for a treat - the net result is usually the same as if I had budgeted for it in the first place, but it means I have to make a concious decision to reduce the amount of money I have allocated to savings to pay for a meal rather than just immediately ordering takeout without a second thought.

I always put something in for eating out etc but not very much. I don't always use it but then I just let it roll over to the next month.

Hope these comments are helpful.

Denise

LondonGirl252

Ah ha!!! Thanks guys, think it is clicking into place now! That's really helpful, I also really like the idea about not budgeting for eating out and it reducing my savings, that way I will feel really guilty when I transfer that money from that category and will agree to go out less!


Off to go and jiggle!

Frogletina

SeduLOUs wrote: »

What is the 'error'? Perhaps we can advise/make suggestions.

Do you have any backups you can load? When you are actively working on the budget screen the programs backs up automatically every few minutes.

Is your budget saved locally or in dropbox?

Frogletina wrote: »

It is saved locally - when I go to open it there is an error message which says

Error loading budget. The ymeta file could not be opened.

There is an option on there to contact support or try later, so I have contacted them.

I have managed to get into an old budget from 11th March, but not the current one

frogeltina

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Try this?

https://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/restore-your-budget-from-dropbox

I've just returned home.

Message from support saying

Please try loading the budget again then when you encounter the error screen tap your ALT key then click on the 'Attempt to Repair' button that appears.

This did the trick but thanks for the link SeduLOUs

frogletina

andyfromotley

Reconciled again, 5 mins, only two non inputted transaction. Definitely getting there.