what is a YNAB?

andyfromotley

No doubt its a response to Dave Ramseys 'Every Dollar' which is free for the basic package and will have blown a hole in YNABs business plan. It sounds very similar to YNAB but is only available to US users so i havent been able to check it out yet.

MoneyMission2015

For me YNAB has completely changed my attitude to money & has been a godsend to our finances. I started using it only at the beginning of this year. When I started my credit rating wasn't great, I had credit card debts, Next account debt and was constantly in my overdraft. I would go a few months overpaying the debts, but had no savings, so whenever something cropped up or even when I had a birthday to buy for, I would have to use the credit cards again because I had no 'spare money'. I had no savings because I told myself I didn't earn enough/had too many monthly commitments.

After just 2 months I had worked out a sensible budget which meant I was overpaying the debts, had completely paid off the overdraft, had worked a savings budget into my monthly salary and my credit rating had improved enough to get a 0% balance transfer credit card.

I've now got savings categories for all sorts of things, Christmas, birthdays, car repairs, holidays, haircuts, kids savings accounts, school expenses, emergency fund, house repairs and Other (for unexpected things). My budget also includes overpaying the debts, even though it's now all on 0%, have all my monthly bills budgeted for every month, have kids pocket money and other expenses built into the budget also and even a small treats budget.

So, after all that rambling, my short answer is that YNAB is definitely worth it.

As for not having enough money in one category when something crops up, I have done it the way some others have described. I take the money from another category, adjust the budget to account for that so it all matches exactly how I've spent it in real life and then just managed on that adjusted budget for that particular month. This is the only way it can be done without using debts anyway, so although it might be hard at first if you're on a low income, as long as you stick to it your savings pots will get bigger over time, eventually cancelling out the need to either borrow from other categories or borrow on your credit card, so will get easier as it goes along.

Good luck if you do start using it.

Heffi1

I am a convert to YNAB and after a few shaky starts am finding that each month is getting easier and easier. I never used to have spare money, and now although not a lot, I do have the start of a buffer and can see how I will be more comfortable in the coming months, it has made me more aware of what I am spending each month and making decisions about purchasing things with the full knowledge of knowing the money is sitting waiting to do its job. I have worked out how much I need in each category so I don't overdraw at the bank and this is giving me so much peace of mind.


Have a look here are some of the success stories people from all over the world have reported http://forum.youneedabudget.com/categories/success-stories they can't all be wrong, but it is definitely something that takes a little while to get your head around as it is a completely new concept for a lot of people to decide ahead of time where and how much you are going to spend in a particular area. Once you have this worked out, then it sort of looks after itself.


The 34 day trial is a great way of trying it out without committing yourself to any expense, along with the webinars and the forum you should find answers to most questions you come up with and the people on the forum are really good at answering what might appear silly questions, after all they were new once as well.

Pixie5740

craftingmad wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if YNAB will give me anything extra to the software I am currently using. I really need to justify the expense if both packages are pretty similar.
Thanks

i had a look at Budget Pulse and if you are happy using it and it's doing everything you need it to then I don't think there's enough difference between it and YNAB to justify you buying YNAB too. Budget Pulse is free for now and I read in the FAQ that there might be the possibility of introducing advertising to help keep it free. If irritating adverts were introduced that would be enough of me to pay £40 for YNAB in the same way I pay £9.99 a month for Spotify so that I don't have the adverts.

Popstess

Pixie5740 wrote: »

In what way is charging people for your product a low blow? It's not only those in debt who use YNAB, it's anyone who wants to improve their budgeting. Besides $60 is under £40 and almost everyone who comes on here looking for help is paying more than that every month for Sky TV.

No-one is forced to use YNAB. You could set up your own spreadsheets, use a notebook and pen, other budgeting software. Whatever floats your boat really. I could make my own spreadsheets but for a one off payment of £40 YNAB has done it for me and done the bug fixing.

Pixie I must apologise, my response wasn't aimed at you, I think I was in a low way when I posted that message and didn't word it in a very clear way. You are right of course, it's not a low blow they are charging for a service. I think I was just feeling vulnerable myself.
From all the responses it does sound worth while I think I'll have a look into it myself.

nyermen

It doesn't work for everyone, the key point is it's designed around a philosophy. So start by reading the "guidance", and think whether you can adopt the thinking. Then maybe start the trial as mentioned.

There are in fact other programs that can handle the same philosophy (not so easy as they're not designed for it, and I'm not sure how many are free ones). Most important is "envelope budgeting" - that is, categories which "roll over" each period until spent (ie. can be topped up). The second is the ability to easily alter the amount per month (ie. not forced to set a fixed amount for all months). Other things can be tricky (allocate income to next month, etc etc) - It's even possible to do a lot in a spreadsheet, you'd just need to update the "amounts spent" manually each transaction.

For me, it wasn't about the software, it was the guidance - it forced me to really think about what was being spent each month, and then to start to think about how to trim those down to have more left over.