Little By Little...

Lydia42

Hi
Well done on your progress and persevering with YNAB. I definitely think it will take me more time to get to grips with it properly, but so far by using it for the first time, as best i can, this month we have avoided going into our overdraft for the first time ever!!!! I only use YNAB on my desk top for the moment, although i have got the app and have taken a look at it - it's good for logging stuff at the moment you spend it or checking you have money to spend in the first place.

It only takes about 5 minutes daily now it's all set up, but I keep my receipts in my purse and enter them onto the desk top version each day. I also log into our internet banking each day and check what has cleared and tick this off on YNAB as you can check it off once it has cleared your bank. I keep the receipts in my purse in a paper clip until they have cleared and then throw them away. Anything not in the clip is a new receipt i need to log for the day.

My hubbie is totally on board with keeping track of money, but never remembered to give me receipts for petrol, so we took a guess at what he would use this month and loaded it onto a monzo card (pre-pay CC). I have the app on my phone and it pings as soon as he spends money on it and i can see the date, value and where - eg. Shell £20.00 for petrol this morning. I can top it up instantly if it's running low but so far we have been pretty spot on with what petrol he's using and i can work it into our budget without hassling him to remember receipts - so he's happy and so am i lol.

I get paid in two days time, and whilst it is hard not allocating my wages on YNAB now, i know that i can allocate it all in two days time when i actually have the money so that what is on the screen is correct, and what we actually have to spend and where it needs spending will be in black and white then. My wage wont cover everything so I'll allocate it in order of what goes out of our bank first and then when hubbie gets paid in a weeks time i will do the same with his wages. You just move the 'virtual money' from 'to be budgeted' at the top of the screen to where its needed. I also have a category for 'things we forgot to budget for' and have put any excess into this category so that my running total at the top of the screen always reads zero like it should - i'm hoping with time i wil be more accurate as we get to grips properly. This category also gave me a good place to allocate spending that was clearing whilst i moved to using YNAB as it was spending done in the past, but was clearing from our current budget - if that makes sense. We actually had approx £280 clearing at the start of last month when i set up YNAB!!!! Goes to show that me thinking i had lots of money when i got paid was completely wrong as i was still paying for money spent last month! So - going forward my budget is up to date and i wont have anything unaccounted for clearing this month and i wont have £30 bank charges for using my over-draft!!! Yay!

Good luck with YNAB!! The tutorials definitely help - especially the one about budgeting when you are broke. He starts his budget with approx £80 and shows how to do it. A great tutorial alongside those for getting started.

redmel1621

Lydia42 wrote: »

Hi
Well done on your progress and persevering with YNAB. I definitely think it will take me more time to get to grips with it properly, but so far by using it for the first time, as best i can, this month we have avoided going into our overdraft for the first time ever!!!! I only use YNAB on my desk top for the moment, although i have got the app and have taken a look at it - it's good for logging stuff at the moment you spend it or checking you have money to spend in the first place.

It only takes about 5 minutes daily now it's all set up, but I keep my receipts in my purse and enter them onto the desk top version each day. I also log into our internet banking each day and check what has cleared and tick this off on YNAB as you can check it off once it has cleared your bank. I keep the receipts in my purse in a paper clip until they have cleared and then throw them away. Anything not in the clip is a new receipt i need to log for the day.

My hubbie is totally on board with keeping track of money, but never remembered to give me receipts for petrol, so we took a guess at what he would use this month and loaded it onto a monzo card (pre-pay CC). I have the app on my phone and it pings as soon as he spends money on it and i can see the date, value and where - eg. Shell £20.00 for petrol this morning. I can top it up instantly if it's running low but so far we have been pretty spot on with what petrol he's using and i can work it into our budget without hassling him to remember receipts - so he's happy and so am i lol.

I get paid in two days time, and whilst it is hard not allocating my wages on YNAB now, i know that i can allocate it all in two days time when i actually have the money so that what is on the screen is correct, and what we actually have to spend and where it needs spending will be in black and white then. My wage wont cover everything so I'll allocate it in order of what goes out of our bank first and then when hubbie gets paid in a weeks time i will do the same with his wages. You just move the 'virtual money' from 'to be budgeted' at the top of the screen to where its needed. I also have a category for 'things we forgot to budget for' and have put any excess into this category so that my running total at the top of the screen always reads zero like it should - i'm hoping with time i wil be more accurate as we get to grips properly. This category also gave me a good place to allocate spending that was clearing whilst i moved to using YNAB as it was spending done in the past, but was clearing from our current budget - if that makes sense. We actually had approx £280 clearing at the start of last month when i set up YNAB!!!! Goes to show that me thinking i had lots of money when i got paid was completely wrong as i was still paying for money spent last month! So - going forward my budget is up to date and i wont have anything unaccounted for clearing this month and i wont have £30 bank charges for using my over-draft!!! Yay!

Good luck with YNAB!! The tutorials definitely help - especially the one about budgeting when you are broke. He starts his budget with approx £80 and shows how to do it. A great tutorial alongside those for getting started.

I am on day two (of attempt number 3 or 4 lol) and it is FINALLY clicking. I am a long way from being completely au fait with it, but I can see how much better it is going to be if using it regularly. I checked the amount in the bank, along with the amount that ynab had listed as a working budget, and it matched up, so all good.

What you are doing sounds EXACTLY how I am doing it. I am moving the amount available to budget, to the bills/payments that are due to come out soonest (before any more money hits then bank) and then putting everything else in a "everything else" category. This is being used for dh's coffees/lunches/any random spends and I am loging them and writing notes in the comments section, so I know where it has gone. Like you, I am hoping to make it all a bit more accurate as time goes on

Also like you, I would always think I had more money to spend than I actually did. I would forget about little things that were due to come out, or needed paying and would easily think I had £300-£400 leftover from my wage, but in reality my wage doesn't cover everything anyway, and even with leaving bills for dh's wage to cover, I have nowhere near that amount to just 'blow on crap' it is more like £50-£70... No wonder, I am always chasing my tail.

This feels quite empowering to be honest.

I found a 34 minute video by a guy who runs through how he sets it up and shows really clearly how to organise categories, set goals, set monthly funding goals etc... I am so glad I found his video. I am still confused about a few things, but sure I will find a video or some instruction on the bits I am still confused about. I must say, at the moment I am in love with it.

I have started saving toward the new pup

GlendaSugarbean

I do a YNAB and Monzo combo too. I'm terrible for forgetting/misremembering little spends until they come out of the bank days later. With Monzo (or a cash pot) there is no fudging!

The Stuff I Forgot to Budget For category is great.

Lucifa73

redmel1621 wrote: »

I found a 34 minute video by a guy who runs through how he sets it up and shows really clearly how to organise categories, set goals, set monthly funding goals etc... I am so glad I found his video. I am still confused about a few things, but sure I will find a video or some instruction on the bits I am still confused about. I must say, at the moment I am in love with it.

Wasn't Nick True was it? All the YNAB things fell into place for me after his video. He has a couple more YNAB videos for CCs too

Lydia42

Yay - well done RedMel1621. Good luck with YNAB. Hope your free month goes ok and you get to grips with it properly. The videos on You tube are fab - don't think i would have tried again without them. I'm actually looking forward to getting paid tomorrow so i can start allocating money again - lol!!

redmel1621

Lucifa73 wrote: »

Wasn't Nick True was it? All the YNAB things fell into place for me after his video. He has a couple more YNAB videos for CCs too

Yes it was
It was by far the most helpful video I've watched :T

redmel1621

The thing I don't understand with YNAB is that when I add a transaction, it always shows up in red as uncleared? I then have to manually clear it. Surely if I am adding it as a transaction it is money I've spent, so I want it to just show as gone out the account...

Any help please xx

Missymae0

Sneaking out of lurking to answer a YNAB question.

If you are using the desktop version just click the little c at the end of the row when you add the transaction or on the app click the slider when you enter the transaction. I’ve been using YNAB for about 6 months and can hand on heart say I will always use it. There’s a toolkit add on for it on desktop which has great extras.

Well done on your journey so far you are doing really well

redmel1621

Missymae0 wrote: »

Sneaking out of lurking to answer a YNAB question.

If you are using the desktop version just click the little c at the end of the row when you add the transaction or on the app click the slider when you enter the transaction. I’ve been using YNAB for about 6 months and can hand on heart say I will always use it. There’s a toolkit add on for it on desktop which has great extras.

Well done on your journey so far you are doing really well

Thank you so much (for lurking and for answering my question :cool:)

I'm pleased to hear you have found YNAB useful. I am really getting to grips with it now and can DEFINITELY see the huge benefits to using it.

GlendaSugarbean

I enter the transaction as soon as I make it, then once it has cleared from my back account I set it as cleared. It still comes out of your available money before it clears, and it means you can trust that the cleared v uncleared balance on your account is correct.

Say I have £150 in my current account and £50 left in my grocery budget. I spend £20 - the grocery balance will go down to £30 and the available balance in my account will be £130. If I click on my account I can see that the cleared balance is £150 and the uncleared amount is -30. Does that make sense? There's no danger of losing transactions as long as you are looking at your budget summary or account summary.