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@.twist.: I'm sorry about your dad. With everything you had going on don't beat yourself up about getting off track. I think it is great that you paid off the debt and I have no doubt you will be able to get your rainy day funds back in order and eventually get a month ahead again. Remember how hard it seemed when you first started YNAB and you did it. You have all the tools you need and we are here to support each other.
If it makes you feel better I am in the same situation, we moved in March and had our LO in April and I stopped YNAB completely so I am in the midst of doing a fresh start to get us back on track.
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@.twist.: It is emotional, but it is empowering too. She's saying it's okay to be hurting, and to take the time you need to grieve, in whatever capacity that might look like.
"Real empathy is sometimes not insisting that it will be okay but acknowledging that it is not."
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Is this thread still up? Anyone looking to start up together in September? I want to get on track before the holidays!
Current question - I did a rough budget and entered my transactions for August (but really want to start in September). What are my choices with accounts that are over/under budget? Can I zero those out for September? Can I adjust within a larger category? Or is it best to just "start fresh"?
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@T.H.O.U.: Do you mean categories? You can totally zero things out so there is no roll over and you start with the money you actually have instead of budgeting according to past missteps.
If you haven't been keeping up with transactions/reconciliations you could also do a fresh start but I would only do that if my numbers were months out of whack.
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@T.H.O.U.: Are you talking about categories? I adjust as I go so I don't go negative in any categories during the month (if you look in YNAB help info or on their forums they call it "whack a mole"). As an example, if I budget $50 for kid clothes but end up spending $75, I take that extra $25 from another category like groceries.
For overages in a category, I let some of them roll over month to month (categories like car repairs, vacation fund, and every three month insurance bills). For the month-to-month things like groceries, I zero them out at the end of the month and put extra money towards savings.
Have you watched any of the intro videos or read the intro articles? I think they're helpful in getting set up for the first time.
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@birdofafeather: @My Only Sunshine: Yes, so my monthly bills is over by 180 and my Everyday is under by $72, but each individual category is way up or way down.
So I guess two questions, first I would like to just start fresh with the income for September in September, not roll anything (but the budget amounts) from August. Then, within September, I will "Whack a Mole" between categories to adjust as the month goes on.
I did YNAB a while ago, so I forget a lot of the lingo. Ive got it mostly set up but this is where I am currently stuck. Both DH and I are
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@T.H.O.U.: Your post got cut off!
If you were just playing around with numbers in August, I'd think about doing a fresh start. I've never done one though so I'm not exactly sure if it wipes out all your information or just some.
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@My Only Sunshine: but I ended up doing. Today September 1 so we'll see how it goes for going to start tracking on the budget from here.
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@My Only Sunshine: @birdofafeather: Can I tag you guys again?
I'm now in my second month and I'm kinda confused. My goal is to get to the point I rely on my YNAB balance and not my bank account balance. But I'm not sure of the numbers I'm looking at on YNAB.
Month 1 -
0 - Not budged in August (wasn't using YNAB)
0 - Overspent in August (wasn't using YNAB)
$10,000 - Income for September (I used my starting balance in my bank account plus my paychecks throughout the month).
$6,000 - Budgeted for September (This is closer to the actual monthly amount I want to budget/spend each month)Result - $4,000 available to Budget (but I dont want to budget that, I just want that to sit there???)
Month 2 -
$4,000 - Not budgeted in Sep
$500 - Overspent in Sep
$6,000 - Income for Oct
$6,200 - Budgeted for Oct.Result - $700 over budgeted
Ive obviously made up numbers here but they are doing the same thing my account is showing. When I look at my checking account balance, it matches whats in my actual bank account checking. So what I am doing wrong. I've watched the videos and read what I could.
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@T.H.O.U.: you need to assign your 4000 to a category. So if it's money we can't spend I put it in a category called savings or something similar
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@T.H.O.U.: for the over budgeted amount you either need to move money around so no category is over budgeted or unbudget some money until you get paid next.
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@gotkimchi: @gotkimchi: Ok, so I dont' "Clear" That transaction then from the checking account?
So for the money that I "overspent" in September. Is it a way to pull it out of the $4,000 that I moved into a long term saving "Christmas" budget category?
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Can I ask another dumb question? My September Balance says -$400 (Budget minus Outflows = Balance)
But then in October at the top (Month 2) it says I overspent $500. Why the difference? Where is the $500 coming from?
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@T.H.O.U.: yes so if you budget 3300 into Christmas that should make your 700 overbudget amount go away.
What transaction are you asking about clearing?
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@gotkimchi: Ok, so for the Amount available to budget, that $4,000 extra essentially sitting in my bank account, I created a budget category for Christmas. In September I set a 4,000 budget and then went into my account and did a 4,000 transaction so it would show up as "spent/outflow". But I guess I dont really need to do that huh. Ok, maybe never mind on that.
But I'm still showing this weird $500 overspent in Month 2. I see where I overspent $200 in Everyday Expenses and another $200 for Rainy Day but that doesn't equal $500.
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I guess my other weird thing is that when I want to look at how much I have left to "spend" (according to YNAB not according to the money I have in my bank account that may be ear marked) what total/line do I look at? The Balance in the gray row? Or the Amount available to budget/overbudgeted.
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Can you post a screen shot for me of the part on the top that says amount budgeted, amount spent, etc in red and green?
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@T.H.O.U.: Yep, agree with @gotkimchi: - the $4000 should go to a category. We have a category called "Emergency Fund." It isn't a transaction. You just budget it but don't spend it.
YNAB will take any overspent money from one month out of your next month's "Available to Budget" money. So your $500 overspent in September got subtracted from your October "Available to Budget." And then you overbudgeted an additional $200 in October, so now you're $700 over budget.
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@gotkimchi: I can't do that right now. But I think I kinda figured it out.
The "Balance" in the light gray row is my net balance (sum of all the categories that are over or under).
The amount "Overspent" in the prior month is the sum of only the categories that I have a negative balance in that row from the prior month.
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@T.H.O.U.: yes! I hope ynab works for you! There is definitely a learning curve but we've found it invaluable
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@gotkimchi: I know, I feel like now that I have 2 months of data in there, I can see how close I could be to having this be useful. I just need to work through these last few hard issues.
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I just found this thread. I'm hoping that those of you with some experience might have suggestions. Things are really tight for us right now since I lost my job. I think we are doing a good job limiting spending but I know an organized budget would make it even more clear. I've never been good about following a budget but I've seen how much they can help. My partner grew up with more money than I had and her mom is TERRIBLE about spending. She never knew what a difference it would make NOT to shop at the most expensive grocery store in the county until we got together. Anyway, she's pretty great with spending now, but is super against any sort of budget. In fact, after seeing this thread I just brought it up and she immediately got defensive. I think she thinks its because I feel like we (or maybe she) is overspending. Not true. I just think being more organized could help. Our income is incredibly variable and is a lot of cash so its really hard for me to keep track of anything. I wanted to try ynab but I think unless she's on board there's no point. Any suggestions? Did any of you have very resistant SOs?
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@My Only Sunshine: So whats the best way to fix this? I think this is the problem I was trying to figure out earlier. For the areas that I overspent, whats the best way to reconcile them? I read on the tutorials its best to rebudget.
I guess, in some categories, can I lower my budget the next month (like my personal slush fund)?
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@2farmmoms: Hi! For us, when starting a "budget" the best way was to really just spend as normal but track everything. This meant getting everything set up either with cash receipts or using a card and bank account log.
Then at the end of the month do some reconciling (which is what I'm struggling with). If you have variable income that can be tough but it can be done.
Another approach with cash is to use the cash envelope system. So you put your $100 budget for groceries in a grocery envelope. If you need more money thats fine, but you have to pull it from a different cash envelope. When the cash is gone its gone.
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@T.H.O.U.: Thanks. That makes sense and I know it will be challenging with cash, but I'm not sure how to deal with how resistant she is. Maybe I need to explain it better, but I get the impression she doesn't want to even talk about it. I'm not sure how I'd track all the transactions if she's not playing along.
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@2farmmoms: Would she even be willing to just turn in receipts to you? Then at the end of the week or month you could enter them all?
Many people view a budget as limitations. But it doesn't have to be. They say you have to switch your focus on budgeting so that you can save and prioritize the things that are really important. But if for her shopping at the expensive grocery store is important,then she may be resistant with you trying to limit that.
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@T.H.O.U.: Yeah maybe so. I'll keep trying to have the conversation and explain that its not that I think we are doing a bad job, just that I'd like to be more organized and see where the money is going more clearly. This is hard.
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@T.H.O.U.: in overspent categories I either reallocate money (so I'll lower eating out to up groceries) or I forward it to the next month. So if I overspend 25 in gifts I'll forward it to next month and it will automatically deduct. So next month I budget 100 for gifts but i only have 75 available to spend
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@2farmmoms: how we started was my husband had a set amount he got out of each paycheck and he used for his own stuff like his car and gas and food etc. all the other money goes in the budget and we use that for bills and household things. That let him spend his money and me not worry about it
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@2farmmoms: Using YNAB can actually makes you feel less guilty about spending money. If you stick your head in the sand and refuse to take a look at where your money is going, you will feel guilty about *every* purchase. When you use the mindset that goes along with YNAB, you can spend the money you have in your category without feeling guilty. Try explaining this to your wife and maybe she will get on board. There have been a few blog posts on the YNAB blog that talk about getting a resistant partner on board.
Good luck!
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@T.H.O.U.: If I overspend in one category, I reallocate the money from other categories during that same month. So if I budgeted $100 for kid clothes but end up spending $150 because she grows like a week, I add $50 to the kids clothes budget so I'm not in the red, and I remove that $50 from another category's budget, like eating out. Does that make sense? I do it all in the same month so I don't have any overspent in the next month.
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@My Only Sunshine: So "step 4" on YNAB lets me dip into that "buffer" account which I have named christmas savings. Is there a way to deduct my overages from that buffer? I can't subtract from that buffer amount in Sept. because then it says I have money to budget but I've also overspent.
- Nevermind, I figured it out. I "budgeted" a Negative amount in the following month (month 2/October) so that I'm back to 0 to budget.
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@T.H.O.U.: i think you sorted it out, but the categories are for allocating money and you don't enter anything as a transaction unless money is spent, or in the case of paying off a credit card bill, i transfer from one account to the other as a transaction.
in terms of talking about a buffer, are you actually planning on using that money for christmas spending? i would try as hard as i could to have categories that carry over, like christmas, so it's earmarked for that and then other savings for what i need to save for. so what i do is figure out how much i want to spend on christmas stuff and then split the difference over the months i have left until i am actually spending on that. i do take from that category budget if needed for overspending, but i want to be somewhat realistic about it so i'm not just constantly blowing another category and then ending up with nothing in my christmas category come december.
@2farmmoms: i totally agree with what @TemperanceBrennan: said about nothing feeling guilty, especially in regard to clothes or "extras" for me once i have assigned my money a job. instead of a huge pot of money, i have little pots that are set aside for clothing or eating out and then there's less to argue about, at least for DH and i.
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Thanks for all the help! I think I've got an ok system going and I'm really try to stick to it. In the past I didn't get it set up just right (was still learning) and hopefully this time I can make it work.
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Did anyone see that the new version is going to be subscription based. $50/year. I'll keep using the old one or find something else - I can't see $50/year for something I could do on paper, especially now that I have a good feel for what I'm doing
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@gotkimchi: Yeah I just read the update. I will keep YNAB 4 and wait until 5 has been released for a while to decide if the new features are worth moving over to the subscription model
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@gotkimchi: I missed that update. Thanks for the heads up. I don't think I would pay $50 a year for additional features. I am curious about the additional features though!
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@gotkimchi: I did. Totally bummed out. I will use 4 until it craps out and then I don't know what I will do. Honestly, YNAB changed my way of budgeting, to the point where $50/year is not worth it and I will find a cheaper alternative, even if it isn't as nice as YNAB.
ETA: Honestly, I don't know what I'll do.
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@.twist.: I agree! There's so much I'd rather spend $50 on! Idk what to use either. I don't like mint. I'm thinking maybe I'll just set up excel basically like ynab? Let me know if you find anything good. I maybe could have stomached $50 for the new version but not once/year
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We'll prob stick with version 4 as long as we can and then reassess our needs. For $59 a YEAR it would have to be pretty incredible for us to use it...
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