You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

getmore4less

kgw1009 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I have one ALL those things. Where I am at now is your last two paragraphs:

Then you start playing with the reporting and forcasting and budget management.

Very quickly you can start thinking year ahead at a time and forget where the money is just what it is getting spent on.

This is where I now need some guidance on using the software for those two things.

It really helps to have data for the reports to make sense and show something.

If you can be bothered it will be worth populating with all of 2015 data,(if you have this in a suitable form) it does not take long.

Then if you ask a question there is usualy a report you can create to answer it. You can do just about anything so decide what it is you want to know and then you can work towards generating the report.

With a budget/plan fully populated two useful reports are the cash flow and net worth forcasts.

I have just done it by asking myself what do I want to extract from the data or just playing to see what comes out. there are tutorials on-line but not used them.

If you have been using pot/envelope based planning now is the time to move to proper planning where the spend is in the plan for when it happens (eg. annual bills are a single entry not spread out over 12month) then use the cash flow to make sure the plan works.

greensalad

Horribly confused with my fresh start on nYNAB.

I started with an inflow of 41.91 as that was what was in my current account when I started.
I got paid £300.
I spent £120 on a hobby related expense
I spent £160 on paying off one of my credit cards
I spent a further £7.68 on some food.

So using normal maths you'd know I have 54.23 in my account.

My account balance on nYNAB shows I have 54.23 in my account, yet it's asking me to budget £104. I don't understand. I can't budget money I don't have...

It shows on "Inflows for January" as £391. But when I click on the account I can only see two inflows: starting with £41.91 and then getting an inflow of £300.

Edit: Discovered the issue. It was £50 I had in a savings account. Now... I don't want savings accounts to be part of my budget. But nYNAB doesn't appear to have an off-budget option? Argh.

hiddenshadow

How did you pay for those things? nYNAB has some...interesting...handling of credit cards. In theory it's intuitive but opinion seems mixed on that front.

So, basic setup:
- Create current account with starting balance of 41.91. TBB for the month should be 41.91
- Create income transaction on current account of 300. TBB for the month should be 341.91
- Create outflow transaction for hobby category of 120. Budget 120 to hobby category. TBB for the month should be 221.91
- Create outflow transaction for food category of 7.68. Budget 7.68 to food category. TBB for the month should be 214.23.
- If you are paying off old debt for the credit card, budget 160 to the credit card category. TBB for the month should be 54.23.
- If you are paying off these transactions + old debt on the credit card, budget 160 - whatever is in the "available" column for the credit card (127.68 if both transactions were done via CC).

Without seeing your budget I'm not sure where the 104 came from, but it might be from nYNAB's magical credit card handling (which shifts money around your budget as you spend on a credit card).

Hope that helps a bit.

greensalad

All of them were paid from debit card. So I had £41 when I started up, got £300 paid in, then paid out for the various things on debit.

As I said in my edit, the extra £50 is coming from a savings account. I created a new savings account (currently my ISA) which has £50 in it (it's just for car savings). So it was showing £50 in my budget. Obviously this was confusing me because in my mind that isn't money to budget, it's just a separate pot for a specific use.

I've gone back and have created a new master category called "savings" and added "car savings" as a category. I've then budgeted the £50. Which has brought my budget back to what I'd expect, leaving me £20 to budget elsewhere.

The thing that is confusing me is that the "budget" category for car savings now shows as £50 but the "activity" column shows as £0.

I'd expect at the end of the month to have my budget zeroed out. That is, every pound has been budgeted and spent (whether that's on stuff or "spent" on paying off debt). But this is going to remain as £50 in the plus, which just doesn't seem right to me.

MoneyMission2015

I know this way might not work for everybody, but I have my savings account as off budget.


Then all income goes in to my current account, I budget the amounts for savings, make a transfer to savings account within that category and it all squares up nicely.


For example


Current account £250.
Savings account £50.


Available to budget is £250.


Budget £100 to various bills.


Budget £100 to savings.


Available to budget is £50.


Transfer £100 to savings accounts, putting it in the savings category on my budget.


Current account is now £150, which is £100 for bills and £50 still available to budget.
Savings account is now £150.


Edit: Sorry, I just noticed your comment that nYNAB doesn't have an off budget option, so my notes above are irrelevant. I'm considering nYNAB but I definitely want off budget options because I have my savings account as off budget and I also put all my gift vouchers that I receive from cashback as off budget too.

hiddenshadow

Just saw your edit, sorry (so ignore most of what I wrote above ).

nYNAB has "tracking" accounts that are off-budget - I think you can select "other asset" and have your savings be listed there.

I (and YNAB) recommend using your sort of account/purpose (saving for a car) as an on budget account, though. (I do have off-budget accounts, but they're pensions, which won't be used for several decades, and the mortgage which can't be spent against so only needs to track payments/value.) As you will be adding money to your car fund and then - at some point - buying a car, it makes sense to track that money on-budget in YNAB - you can get "credit" in YNAB for allocating but not spending money (income v expense reports, when they get added to nYNAB), you can also WAM from that category if you need to (assuming your car purchase isn't imminent), and your eventual car purchase can go against that category (so that you spent what you've saved, according to the app).

greensalad wrote: »

Obviously this was confusing me because in my mind that isn't money to budget, it's just a separate pot for a specific use.
...
I've gone back and have created a new master category called "savings" and added "car savings" as a category. I've then budgeted the £50. Which has brought my budget back to what I'd expect, leaving me £20 to budget elsewhere.

That's exactly what YNAB wants you to do - you're "giving that [dollar] a job" to sit and chill out in your ISA until you decide to use it to buy a car. You've budgeted £50 to the category (and future job) of car buying.

The thing that is confusing me is that the "budget" category for car savings now shows as £50 but the "activity" column shows as £0.

I'd expect at the end of the month to have my budget zeroed out. That is, every pound has been budgeted and spent (whether that's on stuff or "spent" on paying off debt). But this is going to remain as £50 in the plus, which just doesn't seem right to me.

"Activity" is your spending (or sometimes negative-spending, like if you return something and get a refund, you could either treat that as "income" and budget it wherever, or you could treat that as an inflow to the relevant category, e.g. Clothes +£20). If you don't spend, there is no activity. The amount budgeted carries over to the next month and is available to use (or not) then.

Zero-based budgeting is about budgeting all your pounds to various jobs, not necessarily performing those jobs right now. This month we've spent all of our budgeted Home Maintenance funds, but usually we have ~£100 leftover each month that builds up until we have supplies to buy or tradesmen to pay.

Final note: you might want to trim your screenshot as your e-mail address is visible.

greensalad

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

Zero-based budgeting is about budgeting all your pounds to various jobs, not necessarily performing those jobs right now. This month we've spent all of our budgeted Home Maintenance funds, but usually we have ~£100 leftover each month that builds up until we have supplies to buy or tradesmen to pay.

Thanks, that does make sense I guess. I'm used to having a zero-out on all activity in YNAB4. So the idea of having extra cash "available" to me when it's saved seems weird. But I guess in truth it IS available to me and one day will be spent on that car maintenance.

greensalad

That's it. I'm 99% ther to giving up on nYNAB. It's AWFUL. I can't do any credit card spends (which I rely on due to getting paid weekly) without it showing negative in my budget. I now can't budget anything. nYNAB is pointless.

joedenise

I haven't even bothered looking at nYNAB. I'm happy with YNAB4 so can't see any point in looking at a subscription based product. In fact the more I read about it the more I'm glad I haven't bothered.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Denise

greensalad

It's a nightmare, but new job means I can't install programs so I can't budget at work (a necessity for me). I wish they hadn't changed so much.

I just can't work out how to spend on my credit card without it being noted as going into minus budget. I rely on balance available on my credit card to work as available funds because I don't get paid monthly. So e.g if I need to buy my monthly train ticket I like to spend the £350 on credit card, then pay the credit card back £87.50 a week. But if I put through that £350 spend on credit card through nYNAB, it tells me that I'm way over budget because I don't have £350 available.

In a perfect world I'd be paying off my credit cards purely as debt but for me, it's a functioning account.