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YNAB gurus I need help. We are 1 pay period ahead, so we're paying the first 1/2 of April's bills now. How do I log this? If I log the bills and income as April Im going negative in several categories right now even though the money is already there
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@jetsa: Are you actually paying the bills now? If you're paying them now, then log the income you're paying them with as income for March, not April.
I budget for bills and other expenses in the month we're actually going to pay them, regardless of when they're due.
Does that make sense?
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@My Only Sunshine: yes and I guess I could just wait to pay them. I tried logging/budgeting them early and I could never tell from YNAB which bills had been paid and which hadnt but I guess I just need to make it work.
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@jetsa: Even though I budget for April, I don't pay my bills until they're due (or at least in the month they're due). The nicest thing about YNAB is that you don't have to have everything paid off asap (unless that works for you!), but if something were to happen this month, and you lost a job or something, you would know that you have the money already budgeted and put aside for April and it would be one less thing to stress about that month. (At least, that's how I look at it.
)ETA: you also shouldn't be confused about which bills have been paid or not. If you've paid and logged that payment in YNAB, you would see that your outflow would be the bill amount and your balance for that category would be zero (or whatever was left over after your bill has been paid). Is that what you're seeing?
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ok, so we've had a buffer previously, but due to a move and my DH's new job, we lost our buffer. we are in the process of building it back up, but what does this look like for you? tomorrow is the first paycheck of the month that we can finally put into next month's income! so do i budget just based on that money, next paycheck goes into april income until we get extra $ again? pull out from emergency savings to budget and then as we get income put the $ back into emergency savings? so confused now!
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@birdofafeather: Late response so you probably figured out what works for you by now! But ideally, what you described is what YNAB would recommend. Just budget enough for what that paycheck covers for your categories. I have my categories separated out into essentials versus luxuries and this is one of the reasons. I would probably use that first paycheck to budget all the essentials like bills, utilities, food, etc. Then when the next paycheck comes in, budget the rest.
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So I'm curious... Do you guys keep up with reconciling your account vs ynab at the end of each month? Somehow the actual amount in our checking account is off from what ynab says, but like off by a lot, and I'm not sure where we went wrong!?! We've been tracking all our spending so I just don't understand why the two would be so different. Is it off because we don't reconcile the accounts?
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@creativemomma15: I've always had that problem and I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm assuming that because I treat my credit cards as part of my checking account (because I never charge something unless I can pay it off immediately), but it should still eventually reconcile. I even started over for the new year, and it still doesn't match...
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@creativemomma15: I reconcile constantly because otherwise I would miss stuff and the budget wouldn't be accurate.
@Espion: we pay off our cc every month and I still keep it as a separate account. I clear as it comes onto my bill, reconcile often and transfer the money from checking to cc as I pay it off. Otherwise the numbers would get out of control for me and since you're not actually paying the cc off item by item but as a whole chunk, it would be hard to make sure everything was accounted for for me.
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@birdofafeather: I actually line item everything separately. (For example, I never put a credit card payment for $200 to "CreditCard", but $200 to Target as if it came out of checking. So the money is accounted for without having to transfer money around (which I actually find really confusing for some reason). You'd think it would match up to the decimal this way, but it is usually off by quite a lot.
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@Espion: How do you clear the item? Do you enter when you spend, clear when it's paid off from the card (aka, money actually gone from your checking). That just seems like a long time for the item to be sitting in your checking account uncleared and maybe that's why the numbers are off?
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@birdofafeather: yup, I enter everything as I purchase and clear it when it clears through the card/checking. I pay my credit card online, so I never wait for my statements. I may pay it as soon as the charge shows up sometimes.
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@creativemomma15: i am a little obsessive when it comes to reconciling, so i login to all my accounts almost every day to make sure things are showing up, and the balances between my accounts and ynab match.
i will search relentlessly to figure out why things aren't reconciling. usually i'll find that i accidentally typed in the cents incorrectly, or i accidentally input something as an expense when it should've been an income (like when i return something), but most of the time my accounts accurately line up. if it really doesn't match, and i can't figure it out... i will create a line item called "account reconciliation" and just input the difference, then log the category under miscellaneous. that's a rare, last resort type scenario though.
if worst comes to worst, can you print out your online statements and do a compare with ynab, then highlight all the line items you've accounted for as you go? maybe you can find the gap that way...
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@Espion: i'm a little confused... if you don't log things as transfers between your checking and credit card accounts, are you tracking your credit card accounts in ynab as off-budget accounts?
so i'm assuming you don't do this in ynab:
if you don't do a transfer between accounts, i would think you would need at least a category in your budget to assign that money to. when you write off a credit card directly from your checking without doing the transfer thing, what do you categorize it under?
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@creativemomma15: We reconcile once a month, when we do our budget for the next month. I go through and clear the transactions that have actually gone through with the bank. So the "cleared balance" in YNAB (that shows on the bottom of the account screen) matches what the bank says I have. My working balance (the one that shows on the left side of the screen all the time) doesn't match what's in the bank because there are always transactions I've made and logged in YNAB that haven't been processed by the bank yet.
When you're looking at your account screen on YNAB, you can left click on the title bar (Where it says Date, Payee, Category, etc.) and it'll give you the option to see your running balance. When my YNAB numbers are off from my bank numbers, I've found seeing the running balance is a good way to at least know the last time the accounts matched!
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@Mrs. High Heels: We decided to just "make a fresh start" so we can do things right going forward but I need some guidance... We do things similar to @espion with our credit cards. We almost use it as a debut card and do most of our grocery, gas and entertainment purchases on it and then pay it all off when the bill comes... How should we track this is ynab? We've been tracking each purchase because I want to know what we've spent in groceries and what not each month. Any advice?
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@creativemomma15: We pay our credit card off each month, but we charge everything possible to it for the rewards points. I don't have it as a separate account in YNAB, though. What I do is treat it like a debit card, but I don't clear the transactions in YNAB until I pay off the credit card. So if I spend $100 at the grocery store, I add a $100 transaction and take it from the grocery line. Then when I pay off the cc I go in and clear that transaction. My cleared balance always lines up with what's in my checking account this way. Hope that makes sense!
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@creativemomma15: We do it differently than @lawbee11:. We have our credit card set up as an on-budget account, and when we spend on the credit card, we record it as a transaction to the credit card. Then when we pay off the credit card, we log a transfer from bank account to credit card.
Just a matter of preference, I think!
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@My Only Sunshine: If you do it that way are you able to see which categories you spend from? Or is every transaction just in a "credit card" category?
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@lawbee11: Yep, I can see which category it's in. So like if I go to the grocery store, on my phone I log the transaction as Payee: Kroger, Category: Groceries, Account: VISA.
You only have to have a category for your credit card for any debt on it from before YNAB. Otherwise you can use it just like a regular account.
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@lawbee11: @My Only Sunshine: Thanks for the info! My DH and I were trying to figure out what was best last night but I knew you ladies would have good advice too! I guess know we just should decide which way we want to do it. I think I like that having the credit card as an account is more accurate as far as with our bank and when we would pay the credit card bill... Now I just have to figure it out tonight! I was very excited when we started ynab and have been good about tracking everything, but I never learned more past the very basics. I'm excited to get it right now!
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@creativemomma15: You already got some great advice! I record everything just like @My Only Sunshine: explained.
This might be a good place to start too - http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/category/credit-cards-debt
This article sounds like it'd be directly related to your question (the last couple paragraphs): http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/calculating-credit-card-payments
"Why doesn’t my payment show up on the budget screen?
When you spend money from your budget, you give it a category to let the budget know about the spending. Categorization represents spending.
All the spending on your credit card already happened and was categorized in the budget, either as PreYNAB Debt or some other category like groceries. So this transfer won’t have a category. So you aren’t spending from the budget when you make a credit card payment, you are simply moving money to the credit card account to pay back the money you borrowed.
Think of it this way: You already bought the stuff and the budget knows that. You can’t buy the groceries again. Think of your credit card as a friend who walks around with you making all your purchases for you. Those purchases have been recorded. At this point, you’re simply paying back your friend."
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@lawbee11: @creativemomma15: we do it the same as @My Only Sunshine: so my accounts are always up to date. It doesn't say credit card as the payee because the credit card is an account. So I always know who I'm paying and where it's going in real time. My concern with entering a credit card charge into your checking is that it isn't really there and it would be very confusing to see a charge for $167.43 to trader joes at the end of April, search for it everywhere to clear/reconcile, can't find it anywhere and then the numbers aren't matching because it's not actually getting paid out of my checking until may when I pay my credit card off. I want the item to accounted for and reconciled quickly so I keep my credit card on budget so I can do these things. Am I on the right track @Mrs. High Heels: ?
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@birdofafeather: Yes, that's my reasoning too. I like everything to come out of the correct accounts so that when I reconcile I know exactly where things came from.
When comparing balances I always check the "cleared balance" in each account, and don't just go by the running balance on the left sidebar (since those can include transactions that haven't cleared yet).
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@birdofafeather: that sounds exactly right to me! This is the way I do it as well. That would be way too confusing for me to enter all credit card purchases through my checking account. I purchase everything with a cc and pay it off every month.
@creativemomma15: I do it the same way @My Only Sunshine: described. I have 3 different cards (Amex, Discover & Visa). All 3 have separate accounts in YNAB and I Log into each one once a week and reconcile. Then when I make a payment to the card, I transfer it from my Checking Account to the credit card account like Mrs High heels showed above.
I also have been off like $400 in our checking account and it finally drove me crazy enough to go figure out where we went wrong. It was $400 more in our checking compared to YNAB, so that's why it didn't bother me TOO much. But I had to go back to bank statements from 2 years ago back when I started (and didn't know about reconciling). Turns out I had a couple duplicate charges.
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I also like keeping accounts separate and on-budget because when I do things like returns. I can identify exactly which credit card I used, what category I labeled it as... And backtrack it all, keeping everything in balance and accounted for.
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I finally jumped on the bandwagon. I have a huge desire to get our finances in total control this year, and I'm pissed at myself that it's almost May and I've done nothing about it. I just downloaded the program and have a class scheduled for tomorrow. I told my husband at the beginning of the year this was going to happen, so I'm excited to get this going. We have got to rope in our spending, and I think this might be able to let us physically see what we can work on.
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@BananaPancakes: That's great! I hope you like it as much as some of us here do. Personally, it's been such a great, life-changing tool. And actually makes budgeting... dare I say... FUN!
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@Mrs. High Heels: How long would you say it takes to really get things moving. I'm guessing it's several months to get it honed in?
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@BananaPancakes: Yes, I would say a few months to really get the hang of it (esp if you're trying to do things like build a buffer and budget with last month's paycheck), but I saw a huge difference even within that very first month. The results were pretty immediate for me.
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@Mrs. High Heels: I don't list my credit card accounts at all on YNAB. (I only have one.) Because I maintain a zero balance on it at all times, I treat it like writing a check out of my checking account. I have a lot of debt (student loans/mortgage), but not credit card debt!
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@Espion: Oh I see! So when you "write it off" in YNAB what do you categorize it as?
I have a couple accounts I do that with (like when money comes out of my checking and transfers over to a college fund, but I don't do an actual transfer I just write it off to the college fund), but I also have a corresponding category that I match that payment to.
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@My Only Sunshine: @Mrs. High Heels: @mrskc: Thanks for the info & explaining everything with the credit cards. I got it all set up and our accounts are all in check so I am excited to start May off right!
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Kinda late in reading up on all of the latest posts....thanks everyone for the great tips. I never logged in my credit cards, but instead just "cleared" it from my checking when I paid them off.
Now I see the advantage of logging in your credit cards, so you can see which cards you made the transactions, and the balances all match. LOVE YNAB!
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I have NOT been keeping up with this thread.
In April my dad got really sick and passed away. I wasn't keeping track on YNAB and I spent a LOT of money buying fast food and stress shopping (refurnished an entire room in my house and bought half a new closet of clothes). NOT GOOD.
So, I lost track of all my finances. I decided to do a "fresh start" and spontaneously decided to pay off all our debt. Which, honestly wasn't the smartest move, right then. I am back to square one. I follow Dave Ramsay's 7 baby steps, and I have $1000 in savings. Paying off our debt meant I lost all the money I'd saved up for xmas and birthdays and car fixes and annual payments. It seriously was just the most stupid move I could have made. I'm also no longer living one month ahead. I haven't been in this position since I started working when I was 14. I am SUPER discouraged and I am having trouble getting back and seeing the positives.
Not to mention we're moving next month and I don't know what expenses we'll incur with that AND I just found out, after paying off all our debt, that because of my maternity leave, and it being taxable income, I now owe tax money.
Blah... sorry for the rage.
I really hope you're all doing a lot better than me right now!
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@.twist.: I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. With everything going on, it's totally understandable to get off track with budgeting. Although you're back to square one, you'll definitely get back to where you were in no time. Just know we're all here rooting for you.
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@.twist.: Sorry to hear about your dad! You made the best decision you could at the time. You were dealing with a lot and weren't expecting the tax bill. Don't be too hard on yourself. We've had to re-start the Dave Ramsey baby steps before. It happens. Hang in there!
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@.twist.: I am so sorry to hear about your dad. I hope everything gets better soon.
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@.twist.: I'm so sorry to hear about your dad.
And you are most definitely not back in square one - you already know all about YNAB and what you need to do, so that counts for something, right? Just take things one day at a time... it is hard to cope with a loss of a loved one.Did you ever read Sheryl Sandberg's post on grief? Maybe it will help put words to your feelings... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155617891025177&set=a.404308695176.365039.717545176&type=1
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@DisneyBee: @DillonLion: @Kimberlybee: Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement, ladies.
@Mrs. High Heels: Thanks.
I haven't read it, and I will sometimes today when I'm alone so I can cry. haha I have a feeling it'll be emotional to read?
)
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