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@Mrs. High Heels: Thanks for the explanation. You're like the YNAB expert.
I have another question for everyone....did you add your mortgage as an off-budget account? It just seems like such a large negative number, so I don't see the point of adding it. I've added my grad school loan, but I think it'll be difficult to see the number dwindle down because of interest, too. And car loans?
Sorry for so many questions.
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I actually downloaded this a couple of years ago but just didn't get it…I just tried again but I still don't really understand how to start!
I added in my current account balances and then created my budget but then of course I am ridiculously over budgeted in the red because there is no future income category? I feel like I am missing something!
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@MrsTiger: Only budget the money you have right now. The balance should be zero. When you get paid again, budget that check until it is zero. And so forth going forward. Red isn't the end of the world, but you have to rectify that before continuing to budget if our want to be successful. Hope that helps and makes sense! Their video tutorials are awesome as well for learning.
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@DisneyBee: We don't list any of our debts on the budget. We just have a line item for our payments.
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@DisneyBee: We don't list our mortgage or car loans as off-budget either.
@MrsTiger: The idea behind YNAB is to not forecast and budget with money you don't yet have... it's a hard shift in mindset, but like @DillonLion: said, you're only supposed to budget money you have. Here's a great quick start tutorial that should help - http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/quick-start-guide - I think step 5 is where you might be getting stuck.
This should also answer your question - http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/setting-up-ynab - "If you are just starting out and don't have one month's income saved, you won't be able to budget the entire month at once. That's okay - just prioritize your budgeting and ask yourself this question: What does this money need to do before I am paid again? Budget for those expenses and then track your spending. When you are paid again - Repeat. Enter your income, budget it, and record spending."
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@DillonLion: @Mrs. High Heels: Thanks that helps! I totally was missing that part of it and just putting in all my budget items up front. Definitely a mind shift but that is probably why this helps people so much. I started over (again) with just the money we have right now and I am definitely going to watch one of their lessons!
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@.twist.: @DillonLion: @Mrs. High Heels: How important is it to clear transactions? I log the transactions as they happen so it kinda seems like an extra (useless) step, but maybe I'm missing something?
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@lawbee11: I like to clear transactions to ensure that my statement balance matches my YNAB balance - that way everything is in sync. I don't clear transactions until it shows up on my statement.
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@MrsTiger: Hope you've been having a little more luck with it the past few days!
@DisneyBee: I consider my mortgage a "bill", so I don't list it as an off budget debt.
@lawbee11: I don't clear transactions immediately. Actually, I don't clear transactions at all until I reconcile my account. I reconcile every few days just to make sure that my account balance and YNAB balance match. It just let's me know I'm working with real numbers and if something is off, I need to find it and fix it.
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I have a question! We started in with this already having a buffer in our bank checking account, so in YNAB, I only use our monthly income to budget and completely ignore our buffer. I don't have it logged anywhere in YNAB, I basically pretend it's not there. The problem is, my DH will look at our bank statement sometimes rather than YNAB and want to spend more than we have budgeted because he sees the buffer money.
Should I create an off-budget account labeled "buffer" in YNAB or is there another option? I could move some of it to savings but I feel better keeping it in checking "just in case."
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@IRunForFun: You could create a new category called "buffer" and put the $ amount of your buffer in that?
We had the same set up when we started YNAB. I used that buffer to budget for the following month and put the rest in savings.
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@.twist.: Do you think it'd be better to do an off-budget buffer account so it's less likely to be spent? Hmmmm.
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@IRunForFun: You definitely could. I guess, what are you keeping the buffer for? The idea of the YNAB buffer is to build up one months worth of income so you can budget for next month, now. To me, what you're calling your buffer sounds more like a nice little savings account.
If you can budget next month already, then I would definitely set up an off budget savings for your cushion.
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@.twist.: Haha, yeah, I'm really not keeping it for anything except to avoid overdrafting, which I'm incredibly paranoid about, for no real reason, especially since we've never come close to doing it. I just feel like I need to keep a little cushion in checking in case, which is maybe my own weird quirk. The buffer I'm referring to is probably about 2x our monthly income, and we do already have a savings account, which I keep off-budget in YNAB, so I should just move it over...I am just so paranoid!!
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@IRunForFun: I guess the thing that would confuse me, is if you keep it in your checking but have an off budget account on YNAB for it, your checking account is never going to properly reconcile. That would bug me to death! haha
Also, if you are budgeting one month in advance, you should never have to worry about overdraft! That's the way YNAB is designed. It's to help eliminate any focus on not making ends meet. Doesn't sound like you even need to worry about that at all!!
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@.twist.: Yes once I figured it out and tracked a couple of days I realized why none of my other "budgets" have ever worked before. Just over the weekend we spent such a ridiculous amount of money that is never budgeted, on stuff like birthday party items, lawn care, Target, etc.
No wonder why it seems like we never have any money when our budget says we do!
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@MrsTiger: That's great!!!
I found it really eye opening, too.
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joining the thread!
I decided to go ahead and get YNAB last week. Thanks @jetsa for the head's up on the sale! I'm already totally addicted.
We started the Dave Ramsey plan 3 years ago and paid off all our debt in just a little over a year. So we are used to budgeting monthly, but have been horrible at actually tracking our spending. I know we're always going over on certain categories. Once our debt was paid off, it didn't matter as much because we always had a huge cushion left over every month. But now after a baby, a lay off and a relocation, we don't have as much room each month and need to get our act together. I'm hoping YNAB will do the trick.
Thanks for sharing all your tips and tricks! I think the biggest challenge for us will be shifting from forecasting to budgeting with just the money we have now.
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@Mrs Spoon: Welcome! Congrats on paying off your debt in a year, what an accomplishment!
I think the forecasting vs. budgeting mindset is the biggest learning curve that some people don't really understand! It is a HUGE adjustment to change your mindset like that. I honestly was confused for days and thought our buffer (we had one when I set up YNAB) was one months income and I totally thought we were rich! OMG, look how much money we have for ONE WHOLE MONTH! lol.
Good luck with YNAB! Any questions, just come here!
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Any pro YNAB-er's want to help me? I took the first webinar and have been using it for about 2 weeks.
Today it says I have overbudgeted $42.46, but none of my categories besides Pre YNAB Debt are in the red...and in the October heading it says 42.46 over budgeted in September, but 0.00 over spent in September. Shouldn't over budgeted and overspent match?
What am I missing?
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I think I figured it out!
I used my credit card and now have a higher credit card balance than my checking account can afford. Ummm..hello total mind shift #2 here - you mean I shouldn't be putting stuff on my credit card I can't afford? DUH, I feel like a dummy! I usually just assume by the end of the month we'll have enough to pay our credit card balance in full, but doing it this way is definitely going to keep me on track more.
I need to sign up for the credit card webinar!
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@MrsTiger: They shouldn't match. Over budgeted means you budgeted $42.46 more dollars that you have in your account. You need to go to your budget and look over all your categories and see which one(s) you can take $42.46 out of. Because you do not have that money.
Overspent means that you have spent more money than you have. You entered a transaction that went above what you budgeted. Which means you would have to take money from another category to cover the different (or roll it over into next months budgeted amount).
Does this help? Let me know if there is anything I need to clarify.
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@MrsTiger: oh yea. Credit cards are tricky. You have to use them as if they were your checking account with your real actual money in them.
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@.twist.: Thanks, you should totally be a YNAB instructor or something! Super helpful and much appreciated
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@MrsTiger: haha thanks! You're very welcome. I like being part of the solution and I like to see people succeed. Especially if they've spent money on the YNAB program, it would suck if you felt like you wasted money!
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Ok last question (hopefully!
I am seriously addicted ) Does it scare anyone else to budget to zero? We don't have a buffer yet so if I paid all the bills I budgeted for and my credit card (which is now just like a debit card) I would literally have $0 in the bank. I'm the kind of person that gets freaked out when the balance is under $500, so this is scaring me!
We do have $5,000 in an off budget emergency fund, and I'm wondering if I should just move some of that to my checking so I can have at least a little buffer? This month is an extra paycheck month so I'm hoping that will help!
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@MrsTiger: It does and it doesn't. It means the money is accounted for, not gone. It means that, hey, you actually don't have the extra money (right now) to buy that coffee drink or extra doodad at Target. It helps keep me accountable.
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@birdofafeather: Hey! I think it may have been you who mentioned in a previous thread that you had to account for fluctuating income. Can you remind me how you do that? DH's income changes since it's a grad student stipend + however many hours he picks up at his part-time job and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to budget it without manually changing it all the time...
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@IRunForFun: It was this thread! Found the comment from high heels here: http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/ynab-chat-thread#post-1810119
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@birdofafeather: Thank you!
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@MrsTiger: I think I'd feel more comfortable with just a little cushion in my checking - I wouldn't want overdraft fees! So I'd probably move some over from savings just to have a safety net~ And yay for being addicted!
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@MrsTiger: Your categories don't mean you will spend all your money that month. The philosophy is that you assign every dollar a job so you don't overspend what you have.
I would suggest creating a "piece of mind" category (that would essentially be a savings category). You could put however much you want to "stay" in your checking account - like the $500 you mentioned. The "job" of this money would be to protect you from overdraft fees and make you feel better about your 0 budget balance. You wouldn't budget additional money into this category each month, and you wouldn't spend money out of this account.
Does that make sense?
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@TemperanceBrennan: @Mrs. High Heels: Thanks guys!
Yes I think that is a great idea to just have a category with a little "piece of mind" for overdrafting. It's crazy that before I would have seen the fairly high amount of money sitting in my checking account and went on a Target shopping spree, and now I am freaking out about overdrafting since I know what bills are coming up. It's only been a few weeks but it's already changed my thinking so much.
Hoping it goes on sale again before my trial is up!
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@MrsTiger: They do a give away for one person at the end of the free online classes. If you have time, you could try to win one!
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@Mrs. High Heels: OK I have another question. DH and I get paid this week, but it's the end of the month. Do I still put it as income for September? What if I need to budget it for stuff in October? Just not sure how that works...
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@lawbee11: Did you already have enough in your budget to cover all your expenses this month? If so, I would mark it as "income for October". Sounds like your buffer is already there (or almost there?)
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@MrsTiger: they usually have a sale around Black Friday!
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Another question: We used our credit cards for a few transactions this month so it shows a negative balance. The things are in our budget and its budgeted to zero does this mean I have the money to pay them off? I think it does but I just wanted to double check.
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@lawbee11: If you have enough money right now to cover the rest of the month of september, I would claim it as "income for october" and start budgeting for next month! Pretty soon ever paycheck you get in one month, will pay for the following month!
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@jetsa: in theory, yes. is the negative amount on your credit card statement the same as the on-credit account you have for that same credit card? then when you look over to your budget tab does it still show "$0" or something in green under "available to budget"?
I found it really eye opening, too.
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