What does YNAB do that I can't replicate in a spreadsheet?

Tyrone_Black

All,

I've made myself a very unsophisticated budget and am thinking there must be a better way. I read a lot about You Need A Budget here, but I'm not seeing much detail on its advantages.

What can it do that I can't do with Excel anyway?

crazy_cat_lady

I'm rubbish with Excel so couldn't tell you - but you can get a 34 day trial of YNAB for free. Might be worth looking at so you can see for yourself what it's like.

Fmess

I'm not a YNAB expert but I did the trial and much preferred my own spreadsheet. I think the principle of YNAB is that you assign each penny coming in to a category and then log your spends against those categories to make it all balance. I do the same but on my spreadsheet.

I'd be interested to hear what any experts on YNAB say though.

cybertortoise

Not an expert. I like YNAB but do prefer my Excel spreadsheet as I can forecast my spending.


I get paid twice weekly though (maybe if I was paid monthly it would make YNAB more successful for me) so I find I never use the budget function just use the software as more of a running total of what money I have where.


I like being able to see exactly what I owe on each debt in YNAB but my spreadsheet shows that too. I have never used YNAB for more than a few days at a time, then stopped for weeks and then restarted from scratch.

nyermen

YNAB certainly seems to have a marmite sense to it. I like it myself, but I know it doesn't work for everyone. That said, I also have a (rather enthusiastic) spreadsheet that I use for forecasting which YNAB doesn't do.

Result is, the spreadsheet predicts my wealth etc plus budget values, forecasts my future (and basically just needs updating with any changes such as new / sold assets, etc. Also calculates things such as "how long could I survive if I lost my job, what if I cut back / etc etc.)
Then I leave YNAB to take care of the budget, transactions (I have them going back 4 years now), reporting, and so on - ie. everything up to the next payday/budget period

It works well for me, even though I don't necessarily "need" YNAB any more (as it's sorted me out now), but I still want to keep an eye on spending, and entering things is very easy using my phone (supported by the recurring payment part). I could extend the spreadsheet, but it would be more complicated with a ledger, and some way of tracking each budget period with rollovers for enveloping. I suspect I'd end up with a lot of copy/paste, new tabs, needed each new budget period, and since I've already splashed out...

I think it's worth going back to the starting point of YNAB - if you "are you living paycheck to paycheck" - and not saving anything, then the methods described on the website are what make the difference. The Application is one such way of applying the methods.

lazer-zxr

I've tried both.
I like the convenience of myself and my wife having the YNAB app, and as soon s we spend, we log it on YNAB on our phones - with a great simple interface.

I tried a google shared spreadsheets to achieve the same, but it's not slick enough for day to day use.

If your disciplined enough, you can use excel to achieve the same thing, and apply the YNAB principles to it, but YNAB as a program is just that more polished, achieves reliable input when out with the app), and has engaged us both more than excel ever did.

dcouponzzzz

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, but I downloaded YNAB 2 days ago and have a small problem. I get paid on 28th of every month, and most of my DDs/SOs come out 28-31st. As I have chosen to set my income to August's Budget, the payments that come out before the 1st are taken from July's.... anyone have a solution for this?

Regarding the initial question, from how it looks so far it's a great way to track spending against a budget, but I am still tempted to use my own spreadsheet which is less cluttered and more tailored.

greensalad

Nothing, really. But it would be a very complicated spreadsheet to create.

Honestly, my time is worth more so I'd rather spend £30 on YNAB than spend probably 10+ hours building up a YNAB-capable spreadsheet.

greensalad

dcouponzzzz wrote: »

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, but I downloaded YNAB 2 days ago and have a small problem. I get paid on 28th of every month, and most of my DDs/SOs come out 28-31st. As I have chosen to set my income to August's Budget, the payments that come out before the 1st are taken from July's.... anyone have a solution for this?

That's how it should be...

If you get money on the 28th August, then how are you paying for 31st July bills with it?

With YNAB you budget forward, so if you get paid on the 28th August then you only worry about what you WILL spend with that money. Not money you've previously spent. Start with what is in your bank now and go from there.

Although, a good idea might be to remove bills from your current account. Personally I do this. My partner and I have a joint Santander 1-2-3 account just for bills and rent. We pay in a lump sum on our paydays and it covers all the bills that come from that account. So from my current account, I only ever have one large payment for all bills. Plus Santander give you cashback on bills, we make around £7.50 a month from cashback

dcouponzzzz

greensalad wrote: »

That's how it should be...

If you get money on the 28th August, then how are you paying for 31st July bills with it?

With YNAB you budget forward, so if you get paid on the 28th August then you only worry about what you WILL spend with that money. Not money you've previously spent. Start with what is in your bank now and go from there.

Although, a good idea might be to remove bills from your current account. Personally I do this. My partner and I have a joint Santander 1-2-3 account just for bills and rent. We pay in a lump sum on our paydays and it covers all the bills that come from that account. So from my current account, I only ever have one large payment for all bills. Plus Santander give you cashback on bills, we make around £7.50 a month from cashback

Thanks Greensalad, I'm not sure I understand though! I get paid on say 28th July, then my bills come out between 28-31st. The salary covering those payments is the 28th July salary, but the remaining money from this is then my spends until the end of August. Any transactions I then record will show as negative until 28th August, so my budget is only showing useful and correct information for 1 day of the month?!

Is there not a function to set the budget month start and end dates?

greensalad

Hmm I'm not sure I'm understanding you either. Budgets carry over into the next month.

So if I have an August income of £100, then I can budget £100 to spend in August. Any money leftover from August would be carried into September.

Therefore, I would get paid £100, budget it in my 'bills' category for August. £50 worth of bills would come out in August transactions. At the end of August, there would be £50 still left in my 'bills' category and so I would use that for September bills.