You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

~Beanie~

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.

No, income received today goes under 'Income Available This Month', nothing to do with November! Money received anytime during October goes towards October's spending.

AFK_Matrix

~Beanie~ wrote: »

No, income received today goes under 'Income Available This Month', nothing to do with November! Money received anytime during October goes towards October's spending.

Not quite true Beanie, if you have a buffer then income can go to the next Month. But most people starting out with YNAB don't have this buffer so yes income will go to this month.

Claree__x

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

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.

Okay, great, thanks that makes more sense to me.

Nikkisun

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

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.

This is exactly what I did - except I called my category 'excess' rather than 'buffer' - buffer would be a much more sensible name!

AFK_Matrix

I found it the easiest way to builld the buffer and then all you do when you have the full buffer is put in a minus figure of the buffer amount and this puts it in your available to budget and you can then assign it to your categories.

I don't know if you know but the forum on the YNAB site is really good and there are some really knowledgable people on there and they are all eager to help. It is also worth watching the videos and attending a few webinars as you can ask questions to the teachers, you can also win a free copy of the software too.

lhead123

I agree with the others - view the ynab 'webinars' and ask questions on the ynab forum, there is bound to be a number of people who are in the same situation that can you how they use it.

I get paid monthly, OH gets paid monthly but 2 weeks later, and we get tax credits weekly...I add the money as this month's income as i get it and each bill has the date it comes out next to it so I allocate money to the first bills with the first money and then later bills with later money etc.

L xx

getmore4less

Does YNAB only work on months?

from what has been said it sounds like it is a cash flow tool not a proper budgeting tool.

AFK_Matrix

YNAB works on what ever pay cycle you have, doesn't matter if its monthly or weekly. It has columns for each month but thats about it, its all about how you setup your categories etc.

And YNAB is definitely a budgeting tool and it works. Had 1500 quid when I started a year ago and have well over 10k now and paid of a couple of debts too.

Michelle2014

Just started using YNAB and entered my debts so they appear as "pre-YNAB" debt. However when I make a payment to these accounts it does not reduce the pre-ynab debt at the top of the spreadsheet? What am I doing wrong? Feeling confused.

How does YNAB deal with your debts - do you have them as "off budget accounts" or not?

Thanks for any advice.

egoode

Have you attended any of the free classes they run? I would think the one about managing credit cards would be a good one to attend as they cover 'pre-YNAB' debt in that one. If you can't attend one of the live sessions then they have a recording of an earlier session.