Ynab

Pablosammy

TrushTush wrote: »

I have to be completely honest here and say I haven't been using it. It just seemed like such a huge task to sit and put all my transactions in it and I didn't really understand the interface. I have an app on my phone that I paid 79p for a few years ago that does the same kind of thing so I may fill that in again.

I feel a bit disappointed that I can't 'get' it, as so many rave about it, but it will be a total waste of money if I don't use it.

I really appreciate all the help. Sorry it wasn't a success for me

Forget your previous transactions. YNAB is forward facing i.e. none of the transactions you made in the past matter. What matters is what your balance is NOW, and how you allocate that balance. The idea is that you give every penny a 'job', and you only do that when the money actually hits your account.

You need to manually enter future transactions when they happen and give them a category, but it's actually very easy to keep on top of that.

It takes a while to get used to the ethos of it, but watch the videos and it'll suddenly click.

louby40

I too have been using YNAB for the past few weeks, I have 5 days left of the free trial and then I'm going to subscribe to it.

It's great and it's stopped me spending money I don't have. I've joined some of the webinars and watched YouTube videos - all very helpful! I'm hooked and I know it's going to help me!

Fergie76

Never used this thing before, but can you not just do the same thing yourself using Excel for free?

I have created an excel spreadsheet with all my DD's etc and tells me exactly how much I have left to spend at any given point in the month.

sysadmin

Sorry to hijack this thread a bit,

Ive just started (luterally 2 days ago) using YNAB but I have a question regarding savings.

Aside form my main current accounts I have 2 x Santander 123 accounts that both have roughky £13k in them. I have DD's coming out of these and add the money into these accounts each month..

How can I set these up in YNAB, obviously i want the accounts in there so that I can track them and transfer the money in them etc, but I dont want to allocate nearly £26k into my budget each month as it will skew the money available that I have to actually spend.

So how do i handle these accounts ?

HEROWHENZERO

add them in as budget accounts and then assign the money to a budget category. Once you've budgeted the bulk, you won't need to keep budgeting the same again each month as it remains available to that category until you actually use the money.

louby40

Fergie YNAB is a budgeting tool that you use to assign your money to different categories.

I've used a spreadsheet for years and would highlight each amount when it was paid, but YNAB does more than this.

It's life changing.

MandM90

sysadmin wrote: »

Sorry to hijack this thread a bit,

Ive just started (luterally 2 days ago) using YNAB but I have a question regarding savings.

Aside form my main current accounts I have 2 x Santander 123 accounts that both have roughky £13k in them. I have DD's coming out of these and add the money into these accounts each month..

How can I set these up in YNAB, obviously i want the accounts in there so that I can track them and transfer the money in them etc, but I dont want to allocate nearly £26k into my budget each month as it will skew the money available that I have to actually spend.

So how do i handle these accounts ?

My "big pots" are in budget categories. So you'd add them, create a budget category called "Long term savings" or "house deposit" and shove, say £20,000, in there. Then the rest you can allocate to "normal" every day savings, or even more specific pots like "Car maintenance", "home improvement" or "wedding"

There's also a YNAB forum which is really helpful - and take all the classes if you haven't already!

louby40

Mand, how do I find the YNAB forum?

MandM90

louby40 wrote: »

Mand, how do I find the YNAB forum?

It's forum.youneedabudget.com - they're a very friendly bunch

upoiupou

Fergie76 wrote: »

Never used this thing before, but can you not just do the same thing yourself using Excel for free?

I'm wondering this. I'm an Excel nerd so my spreadsheet includes running bank/savings account balances which I can reconcile, a whole load of different savings pots that I maintain (actually all in a single savings account really but I do my own breakdown in Excel) and everything updates automatically when I enter a transaction. I also have various types of analysis in there.

But even if I didn't have all the bells and whistles in Excel, I would wonder if it's worth paying rather than doing something for free.

Does anyone have any views on Excel v YNAB?