A good budgeting app???

FireWyrm

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I too have gone ahead and bought this as I really need to budget for things like car insurance, mot's etc and whilst I put the money away I do forget what I have put it into a certain account for so hoping this will keep me on track.

Can someone with a little knowledge of YNAB explain the outflow column to me, should I be putting my info in on the 'budgeted' column and then fill in the outflow on the day they are to be paid out?:o

Possibly, I've got to the conversation a little late, but I always think a picture says a thousand words...so here goes.

The image below is a screenshot of three months (November, December and January). The category is car repairs which I have picked because it is the busiest of my categories this month. What I am trying to show is how money is 'banked' in categories for use at the appropriate time.



So, in November (and for the preceeding months) you can see that I have merrily been putting money into various categories in anticipation of Car Insurance and Car Tax which need to be paid....all well and good.

In December, I bought Car Insurance for £189 and car tax for £225. Notice the columns to the right? You can see a running category balance showing that I did have £464. I added £35 in December (because that's what happens at the beginning of the month) and just before Christmas, I spent £189 leaving £310 in the account. In January (tomorrow) when all the new money rolls around, I will again put £30 into the Car Insurance fund bringing the total back up to £340. I therefore have at the moment, £340 for car insurance. I have another car to insure in March and that is where that money will go. I cannot spend it because I know it is for a purpose. In December, I also added £89 to the Car Repairs category, and that is because I had some money left out of Christmas which I reallocated to that category going forwards. What really happened was that I transfered the money in, giving it the correct category designation.

Budgeted is what you are putting into the envelope...outflow is what you spent from that category and will also be represented by a payment in the register screen and Balance is what you have left after. A positive entry in the register with a category will put money INTO the category, a negative entry will remove money from it. The balance just updates as necessary, you dont touch it. If you dont make any payments out of a category, then the balance just rolls over because you actually still have money in the category...it stays there, just like in an envelope.

Hope that helps.

P.S, the aim of the game (for it is a game) is to get a big glowing green zero every month. That means you have budgeted every penny, it has a job and nothing has been left to chance. You may notice I have closed down most of my categories, but I actually have many more than you can see here. I budget everything and for those who are interested, this is how far you can go with YNAB if you really want to....



Which then gives me useful information like this :


I'm certainly not saying that this is for everyone, but I use it for forecasting food spend and keeping an eye on how balanced the diet is. I know from these graphs that a big meat shop is necessary and that sort of thing. Along with a whiteboard plan of the meals for the month, you can start to see the power of these tools is not just centered on bringing your spending back down to earth, but can make it even more efficient too.

FireWyrm

alb1 wrote: »

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?

This means you probably should be using YNAB yes. It will eventually even out your year into something less like a rollercoaster and you can then make future plans more effectively. If you are in doubt, YNAB give you 34 days to try it out for free....or just plain grab it at the discounted price now and see how you go. As with most things, this sort of budgeting requires discipline and rigorous honesty in your accounting, but I have found it utterly invaluable. Given that most of the philosophy behind it is to spend only money you have and given your scenario, I would think that it would work especially well for you if only to ensure that you are spending money efficiently.

SeduLOUs

Just an additional note to anyone who is a student or has a student in their family, you can get a license key for free. You have to send some proof of studentyness and you get a key that will last for the calendar year, and can be renewed if you are still a student at the end of it.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/2014/ynab-is-now-free-for-college-students/

jadlgw

I purchased YNAB earlier and have set it all up and synced it on my laptop, phone and ipad. Husband has downloaded dropbox on his Blackberry and opened an account, I have sent him an invite to share the YNAB file and he has accepted but how can he now access the YNAB file on his phone?

FireWyrm

jadlgw wrote: »

I purchased YNAB earlier and have set it all up and synced it on my laptop, phone and ipad. Husband has downloaded dropbox on his Blackberry and opened an account, I have sent him an invite to share the YNAB file and he has accepted but how can he now access the YNAB file on his phone?

I dont believe that there is an 'app' as such for Blackberry...only Android and Apple. You could (as a work around) have an excel spreadsheet where you just copy and paste the values for him.

jadlgw

FireWyrm wrote: »

I dont believe that there is an 'app' as such for Blackberry...only Android and Apple. You could (as a work around) have an excel spreadsheet where you just copy and paste the values for him.

Thank you FireWyrm, I thought that might be the case

jadlgw

How do I add a figure in the outflow section when a bill has been paid?

Toomuchdebt

jadlgw wrote: »

How do I add a figure in the outflow section when a bill has been paid?

You add the transaction in the account it came out of and put it in the correct category. IE I budgeted £58 for my gas. On Monday when the direct debit comes out I will go into my Santander account on YNAB, add a new transaction of £58, payee British Gas, category Gas, and it will appear in the budget section

jadlgw

Toomuchdebt wrote: »

You add the transaction in the account it came out of and put it in the correct category. IE I budgeted £58 for my gas. On Monday when the direct debit comes out I will go into my Santander account on YNAB, add a new transaction of £58, payee British Gas, category Gas, and it will appear in the budget section

Thank you so much Toomuchdebt, can I just ask a question please, in my monthly bills the first payment is my mortgage, is there a way I can put in the balance owing on my mortgage in the balance column so that the balance reduces when I make a payment and also can I put the balance of my savings in the balance column so that when I make a payment that balance increases?

moments_of_sanity

FireWyrm wrote: »

Possibly, I've got to the conversation a little late, but I always think a picture says a thousand words...so here goes.

The image below is a screenshot of three months (November, December and January). The category is car repairs which I have picked because it is the busiest of my categories this month. What I am trying to show is how money is 'banked' in categories for use at the appropriate time.



So, in November (and for the preceeding months) you can see that I have merrily been putting money into various categories in anticipation of Car Insurance and Car Tax which need to be paid....all well and good.

In December, I bought Car Insurance for £189 and car tax for £225. Notice the columns to the right? You can see a running category balance showing that I did have £464. I added £35 in December (because that's what happens at the beginning of the month) and just before Christmas, I spent £189 leaving £310 in the account. In January (tomorrow) when all the new money rolls around, I will again put £30 into the Car Insurance fund bringing the total back up to £340. I therefore have at the moment, £340 for car insurance. I have another car to insure in March and that is where that money will go. I cannot spend it because I know it is for a purpose. In December, I also added £89 to the Car Repairs category, and that is because I had some money left out of Christmas which I reallocated to that category going forwards. What really happened was that I transfered the money in, giving it the correct category designation.

Budgeted is what you are putting into the envelope...outflow is what you spent from that category and will also be represented by a payment in the register screen and Balance is what you have left after. A positive entry in the register with a category will put money INTO the category, a negative entry will remove money from it. The balance just updates as necessary, you dont touch it. If you dont make any payments out of a category, then the balance just rolls over because you actually still have money in the category...it stays there, just like in an envelope.

Hope that helps.

P.S, the aim of the game (for it is a game) is to get a big glowing green zero every month. That means you have budgeted every penny, it has a job and nothing has been left to chance. You may notice I have closed down most of my categories, but I actually have many more than you can see here. I budget everything and for those who are interested, this is how far you can go with YNAB if you really want to....



Which then gives me useful information like this :


I'm certainly not saying that this is for everyone, but I use it for forecasting food spend and keeping an eye on how balanced the diet is. I know from these graphs that a big meat shop is necessary and that sort of thing. Along with a whiteboard plan of the meals for the month, you can start to see the power of these tools is not just centered on bringing your spending back down to earth, but can make it even more efficient too.

Wow, that appeals to my inner OCD. I am really looking forward to getting started with this. I get another payment tomorrow so should be able to play around with it even more