A good budgeting app???

moments_of_sanity

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Correct. You can't 'add' a cashflow amount anyway on the budget screen, the only way for something to go into the outflow column is for you to post a transaction via the bank account.

Budget column represents planned spend (or save), outflow represents what has actually been spent.

Be careful with the whiskey budget. I personally find that if I budget £100 for takeaways I spend £100 on takeaways. Instead I budget zero for takeaways, knowing that if I do decide to have one, I consciously have to sacrifice something else I had planned in order to do it.

Perhaps giving him a category called 'personal spends' and budgeting an amount there would work better. He gets £X per month to do with as he wishes. He may wish to spend it all on whiskey. He may also realise that instead he could spend it on you!



This is where it gets clever. YNAB doesn't care where your money actually is. Put your savings account on budget and make that money available to budget.

Then, create a category called 'savings' and stick all the money into it. If you create a master category for savings instead, you can sub-categorise your savings instead of just having one big pot, i.e. I have saving categories for holiday, general emergency fund, house deposit savings etc. To make life easier for yourself and to avoid having to check your bank balance before making purchases, try to transfer money so that the savings account balance always matches the total of all the savings categories.

I personally just have one account now and keep my savings in my current account as it earns more interest than a savings account anyway. I'm not afraid of spending it, as it has been categorised into savings categories so I know it is appropriately ring fenced and won't get spent on pizzas!

When you really get going with YNAB, you'll find it's actually easier to have as few physical bank accounts as possible.

Thank you, I have set up my YNAB so I have a savings account that is included in the monthly balance but also another one that I don't touch as it's for car/house/holiday etc and will set up matching savings accounts with my bank so that I know exactly where it is. We have various amounts coming in over the month, Child benefit, maintenance from Ex, my money so I will update my accounts as and when the money comes in.

This is looking brilliant already, I can really see this helping a lot with trying to keep track of what money I 'actually' have and what it has been allocated too. :j

foolsgold01

danibee2k wrote: »

I downloaded YNAB yesterday for the trial after reading this thread and have just gone ahead and bought it as it's 75% off on Steam at the moment so only £7.49! Scary seeing my debt but feel it's going to make such a difference to my budgeting and spending. Now I just need to get my head round it all and see if I can persuade OH to use it too!

Me too!! I too have been following this thread and I did add the account tracker to my iphone which has already helped me to keep an up to date tab on my transactions BUT I have wanted the YNAB app for a very long time and have been patiently waiting for it to be on offer like it is now (I know the offer doesn't hang about).


Now that it is reduced to a fab price, I too have just bought it and I am quite excited about it too so thank you danibee2k for mentioning it otherwise it would have passed me on by again! I just hope its not too complicated for me!


FG x

moments_of_sanity

danibee2k wrote: »

I downloaded YNAB yesterday for the trial after reading this thread and have just gone ahead and bought it as it's 75% off on Steam at the moment so only £7.49! Scary seeing my debt but feel it's going to make such a difference to my budgeting and spending. Now I just need to get my head round it all and see if I can persuade OH to use it too!

I am currently £264 short for what I need this month but as I get money coming in at odd times through the month it will all equal out and I am hoping to be able to have enough to pay everything at the start of the month before long rather than having to have a 'negative' balance at the start. I have no debt but never have the full amount for bills at the start of the month and rely on the money coming in during the month it is needed to pay the bills/food etc.

SeduLOUs

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I am currently £264 short for what I need this month but as I get money coming in at odd times through the month it will all equal out and I am hoping to be able to have enough to pay everything at the start of the month before long rather than having to have a 'negative' balance at the start. I have no debt but never have the full amount for bills at the start of the month and rely on the money coming in during the month it is needed to pay the bills/food etc.

I'd advise trying not to work with a negative balance. Only budget the money you have on hand, and focus it on the essentials and the bills that are due the soonest and try to cover everything that is due before you are expecting more income.

Add and budget the new income as and when it arrives.

If you are overbudgeted it means that you cannot rely on your category balances to go out and spend.

moments_of_sanity

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I'd advise trying not to work with a negative balance. Only budget the money you have on hand, and focus it on the essentials and the bills that are due the soonest and try to cover everything that is due before you are expecting more income.

Add and budget the new income as and when it arrives.

If you are overbudgeted it means that you cannot rely on your category balances to go out and spend.

That probably makes more sense as DH pays for all the bills and fuel and I provide money for food and anything else needed.

SeduLOUs

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

That probably makes more sense as DH pays for all the bills and fuel and I provide money for food and anything else needed.

You said earlier that you have a savings account so I assume it has some money in it... Maybe consider moving some of the savings into the main account?

Don't panic! The only reason I suggest it is to enable you to budget for the entire month at the start of the month, and make your life a million times easier.

When the rest of the income does arrive, you can categorise that income straight into the following month so that you are always one step ahead.

Yes, your savings balance will drop slightly, but realistically you aren't really spending it or making any difference to your overall net worth - you're just using it to allow you to budget your actual income further into the future to make the budgeting easier (and then you're already well on your way to Rule 4 - live on last month's income).

moments_of_sanity

SeduLOUs wrote: »

You said earlier that you have a savings account so I assume it has some money in it... Maybe consider moving some of the savings into the main account?

Don't panic! The only reason I suggest it is to enable you to budget for the entire month at the start of the month, and make your life a million times easier.

When the rest of the income does arrive, you can categorise that income straight into the following month so that you are always one step ahead.

Yes, your savings balance will drop slightly, but realistically you aren't really spending it or making any difference to your overall net worth - you're just using it to allow you to budget your actual income further into the future to make the budgeting easier (and then you're already well on your way to Rule 4 - live on last month's income).

I have a savings account but it only has a small amount of money in (about £50) but I could transfer that to the budget and repay once the money comes back in. This month is going to be the worse month for the budget as DH has gone from weekly pay (temping) to a permanent job but that means he won't get paid until the last day in January. February should be looking much healthier (I hope) :eek:

SeduLOUs

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I have a savings account but it only has a small amount of money in (about £50) but I could transfer that to the budget and repay once the money comes back in.

That works too.

Keep us updated with how you get on. Am happy to help if you have any other questions, but the best thing you can do now is just to play with it. In a couple of days you'll be just like me and many other addicted users just staring at the budget screen wanting to do things with it, but everything will be set up exactly how you want it and ticking along by itself!

I never thought I'd get excited about bill paying days. I've even been tempted to cancel direct debits to give myself more stuff to do manually, but then realised that was bordering on insane. :rotfl:

Good luck!

alb1

Given all of the recommendations I'm very tempted to give YNAB a go.

However... my income is very variable. I have a basic wage, but earn anything from nothing in bonus per month, to more than my basic in addition. My spending can therefore change wildly per month depending on how much I have coming in and what I can afford in any given month i.e. bigger spends or one off bills are more likely to be paid in high earning months. Is YNAB likely to work for me?

moments_of_sanity

SeduLOUs wrote: »

That works too.

Keep us updated with how you get on. Am happy to help if you have any other questions, but the best thing you can do now is just to play with it. In a couple of days you'll be just like me and many other addicted users just staring at the budget screen wanting to do things with it, but everything will be set up exactly how you want it and ticking along by itself!

I never thought I'd get excited about bill paying days. I've even been tempted to cancel direct debits to give myself more stuff to do manually, but then realised that was bordering on insane. :rotfl:

Good luck!

I can't wait to be paid my money on Friday as I really want to play with the YNAB all evening!