Budgeting alternative to YNAB

tempus_fugit

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I use the free version of clear checkbook. I have never used YNAB so cannot comment on how they compare but I operate my budget as follows.

I use zero based budgeting by allocating all of our monthly income on an excel spreadsheet.

A proportion is used for monthly outgoings and I set monthly budgets on clear checkbook which do not roll over and reset the day before our pensions go in. We have four budgets, food, entertainment, diesel, direct debits. I allocate an appropriate amount each month and reconcile on my spreadsheet. We also put a monthly amount for personal spending into both mine and my DHs personal current accounts and that covers clothes, hair and beauty, hobbies, personal entertainment etc. Any surplus or deficit from the four main budgets has to come from a spending envelope or goes into a spending envelope at the end of the month when I reconcile.

Envelopes are essentially savings pots which are held in various accounts, some in current account and some in savings accounts or an investment portfolio. Unlike monthly budgets these do roll over from month to month as they do not tend to be used on a daily basis like the monthly budgets. The envelopes we have are emergency fund (now full), house fund (for home improvements, home insurance and maintenance). car fund (for maintenance and depreciation to allow for replacements), holiday fund and general living expenses ( which we also use for birthdays, Christmas, anything not covered in monthly budgets. Again each month I allocate an amount to the envelopes and reconcile on my spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet runs alongside clear checkbook. So transactions are recorded on the clear checkbook app and any transfers between monthly envelopes are also recorded there. I use a credit card usually for food and diesel so when I reconcile at the end of the month I take the income we have received at the beginning of the month and subtract the amount transferred to envelopes, the monthly outgoings on our four main budget categories, the transfers to our personal accounts and any investment transfers. What is left should be the balance in the current account less the credit card balance. Any surplus or deficit usually comes or goes into the general living expenses envelope. It sounds complicated but really isn't. I can see on clear checkbook at any time how much we have spent that month or previous months on food etc and how much we have in our savings envelopes. The direct debits are all set up automatically and I can reconcile the current account at any time to make sure that what clear checkbook says is the balance is actually the balance when I check my online banking.

The spreadsheet records each monthly reconciliation so I only do that once a month on payday to check what is left is accurate and allocate the money for the following month.

What you have described there is essentially a manual version of YNAB, and good on you for doing it.

The benefit over YNAB is of course that it is free but it would take most of us a while to develop something like that, and YNAB saves you the bother. I have often thought of doing something similar but YNAB for me saves me the bother and as I have been grandfathered in to the old, lower price, it’s not too expensive for me. Another benefit is that I can get the OH to use YNAB on her phone/iPad, which would be a bit harder if it was a spreadsheet (which she woul refuse to use anyway ).

Maybe I’ll get round to developing something like that myself but for now I couldn’t do without YNAB.

mej24

I have never used it extensively but there's some software called Buckets which uses a similar philosophy to YNAB.  Its a one off fee, but think it offers an unlimited free trial