Budgeting programmes

Legacy_user

Hi
Anyone got any recommendations for a good programme to help with budgeting - we have irregular income and always seem to be living on this month's income - and when there's not enough it causes issues (like a big chunk of debt that we want to tackle!) We set a budget, but it's never easy to see what we actually have - and ideally we need to set up saving pots to help manage expenses. I have a spreadsheet, but it's just not working.

Have come across YNAB - Is it any good? Worth the sign up fee?
I want a platform both me and my DH can plug into.
We have windows phone and a phone interface for spends would be fab.

Thanks for your help.

sourcrates

Don't use YNAB myself, but everyone on here sings its praises !!

Rosylee

I would strongly recommend YNAB. It's has revolutionized my approach to finance. They do offer a free 34 day trial

ShakeItOff

I am a massive YNAB convert and would definitely recommend it. It is easy to use, clear, the android app is pretty good (though has limited functionality compared to the computer program).

I downloaded the free trial at the end of September (I think) and after a couple of false starts, got to grips with it and then won a free copy on their live seminar. The seminars themselves are really good. I watched them all a couple of times to really get it in to my head.

While I am a while away from being debt free, I haven't used my credit card since using it, which I was always doing towards the end of the month when my money ran out. I am much more budget conscious now and make decisions based on whether I have the money in that category.

I can see that eventually, I will be able to live on last month's income - it doesn't seem so alien a concept now.

I have heard of MS Money and Quicken too, but I am afraid I have no idea what they're like.

System

Thanks all - it sounds so helpful and useful - I'll think I'll sign up to their training and see how we go from there. Good to know you can possibly win the subs too!!

andyfromotley

There are plenty of programmes out there.But i swear by YNab. I get it free as a student but would happily pay for it. Put simply it just works. Once you grasp the basics you will be in charge of your money. completely. Since starting to use it i have not once used my overdraft or had to use my CC's to fund my normal monthly expenses. NOT ONCE!!! For me this is a miracle. highly recommended.

getmore4less

If budgeting properly you don't need instant shared access to the tools you use as they just become a planning/tracking tool.

MSMoney is still probably the best tool out there. and has the tools to budget/plan and can track irregular income but more important is it has cash flow built in as well.

Once set up the day to day is low as a lot can be automated, the key to successfull budget/planning is tracking you are keeping to it and changing the plan when things go wrong.

Having said that getting through the month to month living can need something that helps with the day to day spending till you get that on plan this is where most people go wrong they don't stick to the plan or the plan is wrong and they don't change it.

YNAB seems to very helpfull with this step of the process and there is a lot of active community support. Even using that the key will be tracking your spends are to plan once you get the plan right.

Irregular income should not be be an issue as that is just cash flow what is important is to get the plan right.

The plan(budget) needs to be at a minimum a years worth income/outgoing mapped out in detail including savings/debt reduction and a factor for some longer term stuff(that bit can be added later).

Start with a low estimate of the income and see if that covers all the essential spends.

If they are covered you can then move onto the discretionary spending, some of which will only happen if income is over the low estimate as things will need saving for.

If the low estimate of income does not cover the essentials then somthing will need cutting out, often there are regular spends that make it into the essential list that really should be discretionary

Getting help with the plan/budget is best done with a SOA as this is a monthly snapshot of where you plan to allocate the money coming in.

I suspect your problem will be you are spending at a level higher than the annual income because things look good on a good month where as you need to be looking at regular spending based on the worst income month.

THis is where looking at a full year helps as it covers good and bad and shares out the income, then you can tackle the cash flow by building up buffer funds on the good months to cover the bad months.

Depending on how bad things are it may take a few months to a year of serious cutbacks to get on track.


Another thing about normalizing on a year total is you get to see the bigger picture, and can prioritize based on annual totals, when some thing are £X per Week some £XX per month and some £XXX per month it easy to loose track track that that £2 per work day coffee is the same as a holiday.