I want to continue the discussion of YNAB here. 
What are your favorite features, if you use it?
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haha So sorry about your earlier thread.
My favourite YNAB feature, so far ( I think there are many I haven't discovered), is the reporting system! I love watching our net worth grow! (even if it is, little, by painfully slow, little.
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I like that two (or more?) people can have an app attached to the one single account. So ... I'm in charge of the budget/YNAB, but DH is resistant (lol). Before YNAB it was a big struggle to have meetings about money, show him our budget on paper, tell him we only have $x left in a certain category, harass him about receipts when he makes a purchase, etc. With YNAB, he has the app on his phone and can just look anytime and say "okay, we have $50 in the clothing fund" (for example). And because it's so easy he's also more willing to add his transactions in via the app.
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@cmomma17: Yea, both DH and I have it on our phones! I'm not sure if we could put it on another but it's definitely a cool feature. Especially for DH cuz, like you said, he's also resistant. This makes it super easy for him.
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@.twist.: One of our big problems in the past was that DH would look at the checking account balance before deciding to buy something. "Oh, we have $10,000! I'm going to spend $800 on groceries today!" Little did he know I had all of that earmarked for insurance, car payments, future haircuts, etc. etc. etc. (totally made up #'s by the way
) Now, he looks in the app and is totally unaware of our checking account balance, which is a VERY GOOD THING! 
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I'm a big fan of split transactions, right now I appreciate how granular our categories are because it helps me to really see what we are spending our money on.
Another tip that was a life saver was putting the amount and due date in the Category name. As an example "Rent ($1,000*, 1st)". It helps me to keep track of what my upcoming bills are.
* No that is not really our rent....I wish
I also put all my categories in order of due date
Rent ($xx, 1st)
Cell Phones ($xx, 10th)
Cable/Internet ($xx, 15th)
Insurance ($xx, 17th)
Transit Pass ($xx, 30th) -
@.twist.: I never use the reporting features - I should start looking at those!
Hmm... I think my favorite feature is the rollovers. If you have extra money left over at the end of the month it'll automatically roll over into the next month. On the flip side, if you overspend in that category, you can choose to deduct it from next month's category too. It's a great way to save up for things.
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So, question about YNAB/budgeting in general... DH and I are trying to get into this whole budgeting thing, and getting so overwhelmed! We're trying to budget certain categories, let's say gifts and travel. Well, obviously those aren't going to be anywhere close to similar month to month. Does YNAB address this at all? Right now we have this crazy Excel spreadsheet, and let's say we 'budget' $50 in gifts/month. Well Feb - April we spend $0 on gifts, so we have all this budgeted money rolling over each month until we spend like $200 in July or something. And then by December we have a bunch rolled over for Christmas shopping. Same thing with travel and home improvement projects...
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@mrswin: Putting categories in order of due date is genius! I'm going to start doing that, thanks for the tip!
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@cmomma17: haha! I hear ya. DH never has to look at the account balance any more. DH used to do our account balancing and he's such a busy guy I took over after starting YNAB. It's made his life a little easier and now I am OBSESSED. I used to budget a lot before DH, and then combining finances just threw me right off. He's self employed so his income can vary. I was confused. This makes it so easy because it doesn't matter what his income is!
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@Mrs. High Heels: It sounds like you may have answered my question
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So I'm replying to @.twist.: from the other thread where she asked about me mentioning the comment feature on each category.
So I use it in different ways depending on the category:
For my "subscriptions" category, I use the note feature to break down the specifics: "Spotify - $10.54, Hulu Plus - $7.99 Amazon Prime - $6.59/month $79 total. BUDGET: $25.12 per month"
We have categories for "Fast Food Breakfasts and Lunches" and since we are not fully buffered yet (2 more months!) the comment will say "BUDGET $20 per month" but the first or second week, we will only put $10 in the category so we don't spend it all early in the month.
We also have categories - like groceries - that we usually go over, so I do the same as @Mrs. High Heels: and just have the goal in the comment.
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@swurlygurl: Yes, YNAB talks about this if you read their articles/blogs. The great thing about YNAB is that it's fluid. Sometimes I'll bump up my budgeted amount for one category, and reduce the amount in another category. My budgeted amount can change from month to month (that is also why I keep little text notes next to each category to show what my "ideal budgeted amount" for that category would be).
We usually try to budget for "luxury categories" such as gifts and vacations, but some months we don't have enough to cover those categories so they remain unbudgeted. But it's no big deal since those are luxury categories anyway. We don't have to put a set $50 every single time. "Roll with the punches" (YNAB Rule #3)
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@swurlygurl: I sit down and do a budget on paper every month, because life is crazy and things can change so much! With YNAB, after we get paid I enter my #'s from the paper budget into the software. I can also go back in at anytime and make adjustments. Like, say I budgeted $50 in a clothing category and $50 in car maintenance. But then we need a $100 car repair. I'd move the $50 from clothing to car maintenance and not buy any clothes that month. Make sense?
I find YNAB to be very flexible. It also teaches you to only budget the money you actually have on hand ... so you don't budget/forecast an entire month at once. Hope that makes sense! -
@mrswin: I put our fixed expenses in order of date as well! Makes it so much easier. I also love seeing them fill in one after the other. HA.
@Mrs. High Heels: I don't do anything with the reports (like printing, etc.) but I do check them every once in a while to see what our spending looks like as a whole. It's made me realize that we are spending approx. the suggested % amounts on each category in a "healthy" budget. We definitely need to work on our saving, but that's the point of the budget.
@swurlygurl: I might be confused, so you put 50$ in vacay in february, and then 50$ in march, and you don't like that it just continues to roll over?
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@swurlygurl: I was typing when you replied! But yes, the rollovers would address your problem too!
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@TemperanceBrennan: aaah! That makes sense. I never thought to do something like your "subscriptions" example and add a few things in one category. It makes total sense though and less clutter!
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I love the fact that there is desktop software AND an app that work seamlessly together. I love seeing how much money I have in a category and entering the transaction at the store. I also love how comprehensive the desktop app is.
We spent a good amount of time expense tracking before we could successfully budget. It was really nice how easy it was to break down our spending and set realistic goals in the beginning.
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@.twist.: Hah, no, I like that it rolls over, it just gets confusing sometimes to try to remember how much we actually have allotted at any given time. For home improvement this month, we wanted to spend a LOT of money on some retaining wall supplies, but then we had to go through each month's actual expenses to see how much money we really had left from budgeting to use for this new expense. We're trying to live within our budget so that our savings can continue to grow. We're having the problem of using the money we see that we have, but we really need to work on limiting ourselves, which we're trying to do by only allowing ourselves to spend x amount of money on certain categories.
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@TemperanceBrennan: @.twist.: I do that too! I have a category called "streaming" and that's where Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu+ go. I like the sound of "subscriptions" better because it would be more inclusive of other things too!
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How many categories does everyone have? I have 8 master categories with 38 categories. I've never counted before, but that is a lot!
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@TemperanceBrennan: are the master categories the headings like "everyday expenses"? If so, I have 5 Master categories that then break down into 53 categories! Eeek!
That's actually the thing I love about YNAB, that I can break things down like that (works for my brain).
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@TemperanceBrennan: 9 master categories, and 50 sub-categories.
My master categories are:
- Everyday expenses
- Everyday luxuries
- Monthly Bills
- Utilities
- Debt
- Giving
- Planning Ahead
- Yearly expenses
- Budgeting goalsWhat's everyone else's?
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You all have some awesome ideas. We started YNAB in February and it's been an amazing help. I love how flexible it is. We've got $700 budgeted for our December vacation. Now that T was in the hospital and we had to eat out for every meal while he was in there we can easily just take some of that vacation money out and move it to eating out...and no fuss! No wondering how we could afford it.
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I'm still loving YNAB! Been using it for well over a year now, and I still love it. It's absolutely crucial I stick with it now with me being a SAHM now.
@TemperanceBrennan: oh I like your subscriptions category! Right now I have a "yearly expenses" category and separate subs for Amazon prime, costco membership, etc.
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Ours are:
Everyday expenses
Monthly bills
Sporadic bills
Entertainment
Pets
Rainy day funds
Savings
Giving -
love this thread and so thankful to @Mrs. High Heels: to bringing YNAB to my attention a while ago! we loved Mint for years, but it was getting TERRIBLE for our changing and unpredictable incomes! YNAB really got us on point and on track during a slow season for our family.
i like the organizational tips from the Bees. and i've also loved the syncing from our ipad/two computers/two phones. seamless!
one tip for the self-employed with flexible incomes: i just recently made a deferred income category so instead of budgeting every last dollar into spending, i put extra money aside for the lean months. when we don't make our target income, i pull a negative budgeted number from that deferred income category so that puts more "available to budget"
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@birdofafeather: Does it have an ipad app? I didn't think it did.
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Master Categories:
-Monthly Bills
-Everyday Expenses
-Everyday Luxuries
-Yearly Expenses
-Rainy Day Funds
-Savings GoalsI'm not extremely happy with I have things organized at the moment. Need to do some rearranging.
@Mrs. High Heels: Oh I like your "planning ahead" & "budgeting goals" categories. May have to add those or change the name of some of mine.
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@TemperanceBrennan: I will have to check when I get home!
@swurlygurl: Usually for travel my SO and I are planning our next trip far enough in advance that I can set a goal for this (i.e. $3,000 for an all inclusive for a week) then what I do is put a note in the category based on how much we need to get there...
Vacation (Goal:$3,000, Target:$300/mth)
I do exactly the same for Christmas and Gifts. I made a separate spreadsheet and listed every person we regularly buy for along with what we typically spend and then added a generous buffer for things like weddings, baptisms, etc and divided it by 12 months. I aim to put in the target amount each month, if it is a quiet month it rolls over but at least it is there!ETA: For your home improvement scenario you could make a Master Category for Home Improvement and then make each project a sub-category so that you have the level of detail you are looking for...
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@birdofafeather: I do something similar to that! We have bonus or dependent care money that comes in every once in awhile, so we put it in our deferred income category, and negative it out when we need extra, usually for those months when there are 5 weeks because it means we have an extra week of daycare costs we need to cover!
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@mrskc: I think my "budgeting goals" category might be similar to your "savings goals" category? And "planning ahead" sounds like your "rainy day funds".
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@Danizaur: we use the iphone app version on it just fine! it's just not as pretty as the apps made specifically for the ipad.
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@birdofafeather: I do something kind of like that since my hubby is a teacher and only gets paid 10 months out of the year. I have a "summer" category and I calculate how much I need to put in there from each pay check so it's like he gets paid 12 months. Then during the summer I negative out the amount so there is money to budget those months.
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@Mrs. High Heels: yeah, but I like the name of yours better.
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@Mrs. High Heels: I have Monthly bills, Everyday expenses, Rainy Day funds, Debt, and Savings goals.
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@Mrs. High Heels: it took me scrounging the YNAB forums to figure out how to do that! our incomes are so variable that it was getting confusing to literally budget every dollar. because if we spent everything in the summer months, we'd be screwed in the winter!
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@birdofafeather: Yes! There are a lot of hidden tips on the YNAB site! Took me awhile to find some of them. For anyone else that wants to know what we're talking about.... here is how you negative out certain categories to make that money available for use - http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/rule-four-live-on-last-months-income
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@birdofafeather: Can you explain the deferred income/negative budget a little bit more? This is a problem I'm having right now, figuring out how to budget using DH's ever-changing grad school student income. Seriously, it changes every few months depending on the funding he can get and it drives me insane trying to budget for that. What do you mean by "negative budgeted number"? I'd like to create a deferred income category if I could figure out how it worked!
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@Mrs. High Heels: HA, you just answered the question I was asking @birdofafeather:
) Now, he looks in the app and is totally unaware of our checking account balance, which is a VERY GOOD THING! 
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