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

hohum

What I would say about YNAb is that it's first a methodology, second a budgeting tool. The method is based on envelope budgeting, which means that you should only allocate money you actually have. People seem to get hung up on forecasting and YNAB - it can help to think of it as an money allocation, not 'budgeting'. You simply tell YNAB what you want your money to do before you next get money. This doesn't mean you can't keep track of planning for future bills, but it avoids the 'weeee free money wait I don't have enough to pay this car repair' cycle that may be familiar to some of us.

So YNAB isn't much different that a spreadsheet, except that it has a particular method to using that spreadsheet. My tip for successful use of YNAB is a) watch the videos and take the classes b) go for it and don't expect it to behave as your own system does. The people I see who have problems are those who can't let go of how it 'should' be, or for understandable reason hang on to their security of previous budgeting systems. A year and a half to using YNAB we've paid of £3k of debt and have substantial savings in our accounts. Plus, I don't worry about money any more.

The beauty of YNAB is that you don't HAVE to use it - but if you do, give it a chance to work for you by investing in the method as well as using the software.