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So October was a successful month for us with YNAB! It finally "clicked" for me and we finished the month without adding any debt to our credit cards, actually paying them down and also putting $400 toward a buffer! DH was skeptical and resistant in the beginning of the month, but by the end he was truly on board and tracking his expenses against the budget. Finger crossed for continued success in November!
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So maybe yall can help, we made a fresh start nov 1 and now our iPhone app is off. I emailed them friday but no response. I've tried turning cloudsync off and back on and deleting and reinstalling the app, it still pulls the pre-fresh start budget
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@sunshineandsushi: Yay! My husband was skeptical too and now he's always the one saying "We need to remember to put this on the budget!"
We've been doing YNAB for three months. We're in the "in between" week between paychecks, and we noticed we've NEVER had this much money in our bank accounts at this point before. Love it!
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YNAB 50% off for Black Friday!
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Does anyone use YNAB solo? I'm thinking of getting it, but will likely be the only one using it.
ETA: bought it. $60 for an annual subscription heck yeah!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: It's better than that-- it's a one-time payment, not a subscription fee! ETA that I am the primary user of YNAB. DH has the app on his phone but I don't think he uses it. Every Friday I enter all of our transactions for the week, adjust our budget as necessary, and then give DH a run-down on where things stand. I let him know how much money he has to spend, etc. He usually just checks with me before spending money we haven't talked about. It was an adjustment for him at first, but now that we are truly seeing the fruits of our labor he is 100% behind me on using YNAB. Good luck!
I just wanted to share a personal victory with you guys! We purchases YNAB when it was on sale at the end of the summer, and have been diligently using it ever since. We have not been perfect by any stretch, but that's why YNAB works for us. If we over-spend in a category, we just move money around to cover it. It has made us very aware of our spending habits.
So now the victory: We set up short-term savings categories, including one for Christmas. We decided on our Christmas budget based and allotted a specific amount to each individual we had to shop for. For the first time in our entire marriage, we are going to come out of the holidays WITHOUT a mountain of debt! We paid off our remaining credit card debt thanks to YNAB, and I am so completely thrilled that the new year will truly be a fresh start, and not riddled with the financial baggage of 2014.
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@mrsrain: yay, that is great! What a great way to start the new year!
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@jetsa: I don't know if you figured this out, but when you start fresh you are creating an entirely new budget. So you need to go into your YNAB app menu, at the top it will say [insert budget name here] with a little arrow pointing left. Press it and it will bring you to a list of your budgets. One will be your current, new budget and the other will be "[insert budget name here] before fresh start".
I hope that makes sense.
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: YAY! It shouldn't make any difference if it's just you using it or you and Mr.LemonLime. In fact, it's probably easier with just yourself cuz you won't have to worry about anyone else messing it up !
@mrsrain: Congratulations! That is a great victory!
AFM, I haven't been using it as diligently as I once was. Life stuff and all kinda redirected my focus. But, I'm trying to get back into it and use it more and better!
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@.twist.: yea, what happened was I updated my mac OS and it and dropbox were having issues. Updated dropbox and it was all fixed thank goodness!
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@jetsa: oh good!
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I just have to thank all of you for all the advice in this thread! I came across it and was interested in the app. So I read through to see everyone's advice. I'm doing the trial now to see how it works for us. I had an elaborate excel spreadsheet (I have an unhealthy addiction to excel!) but I'm liking this better I think! I just need to adjust my thinking regarding budgeting future money.
I have a question that I think I read the answer to in this thread so please forgive me, but I will receive one more pay check this month (on the 31st), I have already paid all the required bills for this month. Should I set the 31st paycheck to income for January? Or should I put it in the buffer category? So far the buffer category is the only thing I get hung up on.
Thanks!!
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@HappyBluebird: if all your bills are already paid, I would use this paycheck as "income for January". The buffer is for people who don't have enough money to dedicate to the next month. So, if you needed this December paycheck to pay bills in December, you would put a little bit in the "buffer" until you had one full months income.
It sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on your money so you may only need half a months buffer. Am I making sense?
You're on the right track and congrats on your YNAB trial! I hope you enjoy it. I had a VERY elaborate spread sheet too before YNAB and this is just so so much easier!
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@.twist.: Ok that's what I was going to do but I think I was over-thinking some parts! I'm hoping this will help us with our budget in the winter months. DH's income changes between Spring/Summer/Fall and Winter. Also we are big over-spenders in some categories even though we have good intentions in the beginning of the month not to do it! I think seeing the balance in each category will help that habit!
Thanks for the help, it makes sense!
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@mrsrain: @.twist.: I'm so disappointed YNAB and my work computer were just not seeing eye to eye. The YNAB folks ended up refunding my subscription and said they will one day have a mobile-only app. We ended up buying Quicken- which for right now is more of a tracker than a budget manager IMO. There's a roadblock there too- our Credit Union is not compatible. Ugh!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Bummer! Can I ask why you were using it at work? I personally wouldn't, just for privacy reasons. Would you be able to put it on a computer at home?
@HappyBluebird: I'm not the best at explaining things clearly, @Mrs.Highheels: is the pro there. But, I do my best!
We are big over spenders too and this has helped immensely. My husbands income is not predictable so it REALLY helps to be able to see what my income covers for the important necessities and then using the rest (his income) to cover the less important things.
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@.twist.: I prefer to use my work laptop that I have access to 24/7. We bought a personal laptop for me to use with Rosetta Stone, but it's a pain- bulky and constant pop ups.
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@mrsrain: Awesome!!!
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@.twist.: you totally got this down! i am going to start going to you for questions from now on!
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: oh no...
what about your work computer isn't compatible with ynab? hopefully they come out with that app sooner rather than later. i'm glad they were able to refund your money though!@mrsrain: I love reading success stories!! that is an awesome accomplishment!
@HappyBluebird: i'd put that as income for january too! hope you end up loving it as much as the rest of us. i used to use a boring excel sheet too. this is so much better.
@.twist.: i've been really slacking too. lately i'm just on autopilot with this, and it's so easy with the holidays and splurging here and there. one thing i've started doing is using the iPhone app - i used to log everything on my laptop every other day to make sure my accounts are reconciled, but using the app has made my life so much easier!
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@Mrs. High Heels: there were two things I had to download to both my computer and mobile phone. The first thing was some kind of cloud or drop box. So I started with everything on my phone thinking YNAB's "use on personal or work computer" as optional ways to access. After sort of kind of installing the cloud or drop box I couldn't open it on my phone to begin the second step. I called YNAB tech and tried to finish the install of the first step on my laptop. No go. I sent over an email request for help via a work around/ mobile only option. No go.
Can you use YNAB with Credit Unions?
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: YNAB doesn't automatically pull transactions and is not linked to your bank account so you can use it with every bank.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: OOOH. Well, a laptop is much different. HAH. I have a desktop at work so was totally thinking along those lines.
So, I don't know what a credit union is or does, but I searched the YNAB forums and I believe you CAN use it with YNAB. I'm not sure if this thread will answer your question, but there seemed to be some valuable info in it anyway. Take of it what you will.
http://forum.youneedabudget.com/discussion/13604/savings-accounts-at-credit-union-how-to-budget
@Mrs. High Heels: Honestly, my distraction has been so silly. I found a game on facebook and instead of doing my budgeting after L goes to bed, I've been playing this stupid game. *embarrassed!* So, I really need to cut that out! HA.
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@.twist.: a credit union is just a type of bank
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@jetsa: ah, thanks! Then yea, it should work just fine, no different than another regular bank?
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: oh strange... I wonder if it would've worked if you tried the install on your desktop first. And yes, it definitely works with credit unions.
@.twist.: haha, please don't tell me you've been playing candy crush!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: are you sure your work laptop is capable of accepting all those downloads? I know for a fact I can't download or access certain things on my work computer.
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@Mrs. High Heels: I don't have a work desktop, since I work from home I am outfitted with a laptop & a Surface that is even more restricted than the laptop. @looch: exactly, once it was time to try and install something on my laptop I knew it would be a bust.
@.twist.: @jetsa: ok, this helps. I'll have to work on my husband a bit to see if he will switch to YNAB. I'm not sure if he had to install something on his (work) laptop to get access to Quicken or if that was just an app from the beginning. I'd much rather use YNAB since so many of you are familiar with it.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I installed it on my work laptop and remember having to change firewall settings to allow Dropbox to run correctly. Basically YNAB needs Dropbox in order for you to sync anywhere else (like to your phone).
I *think* this is all I had to do -
https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/23 -
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: ah I see. I have a work laptop too and can't download anything external. Too bad YNAB isn't web based so you can access with a URL!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Yeah, the app is only an accessory to the main program. You can't do all the cool stuff on the app, just log transactions. Hope you can get it to work, because I'm converted!
@Mrs. High Heels: @.twist.: Another slacker. But I totally just got caught up, and it helped me save for tickets to fly my sister and her family up here in the spring! SO glad I put money aside for Christmas too, because that hurt...
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Ok...so...I've totally been slacking on this. New Year's Resolution: become a YNAB wizard like you guys!! I'm extra motivated because I just spoke with someone at my bank, and he made me realize that purchasing a home is something that would actually be possible (I never thought it would be in a million billion years) in the next 6-ish months. Which means I need to save save save!!!!!
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Hello! I'm new here! YNAB is definitely my New Year Resolution.
Now...to figure out how to change my thinking from "weekly budgeting" to "monthly" Oi. Thankfully, my first paycheck is right at the beginning of the month so hopefully that will help my mentality!
1 question though - for those of you that weekly grocery shop - do you just change your budget each week, or do you go into the negative for that? I get paid weekly, so I always grocery shop weekly...
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@AmandaB8: The goal is to be paying for things with last months money so at some point, it won't matter when or how often you get paid as that paycheck will actually be paying for groceries next month. We shop at all random times for groceries so it all comes out of that big pot that we budget for groceries. I would input that weekly budget you have times 4.3 for the month. The good thing is that you can roll with it if you need to move money around in the budget!
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So our budget got out of hand. I told DH I wouldn't check ynab/accounts so he could surprise me with a gift. This meant that every purchase wasn't properly input and I didn't know until 3 weeks later so we were grossly overspent with eating out. I didn't realize how much I depend on ynab to keep us in check until we didn't use it! What did you guys do in order to keep gifts secret but stay on budget?
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Hi everyone! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
I now have a question with regards to returns. With Christmas shopping, I would input all of our gifts under "Christmas." but then if I ended up buying another item and returning the other, I would input the return as "income." But then my Christmas spending will still include the 1st item bought. How do I account for this?
Sorry it's so long-winded, but I hope it makes sense.
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@birdofafeather: It's ok, it happens! The good thing about YNAB is you can readjust next month and maybe tighten up in other categories. DH and I don't exchange Christmas gifts, so haven't run into the whole issue of keeping gifts secret!
@DisneyBee: When I do a return, I put that money back into the category it came out of! So my "payee" is "RETURN"... and my "category" would be "gifts" since it came out of the gifts bucket.
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@Mrs. High Heels: Thanks...it makes sense now.
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@birdofafeather: The same thing (gifting, getting over budget) happened to us too. I don't think there is anyway to really hide it, because we are basically a single income family and everything gets paid for out of the same pot. I just figured we'll have to reconcile everything in the next couple of days. Thank goodness I already allocated my last paycheck to next month. I will just have to go back and split the transaction as income for December and January to make up for our overspending this month.
And it sounds obscene, but, man, I am definitely going to work on setting aside $100/month for Christmas next year starting in January. Shipping costs really kill us up here. Plus it allows us to buy stuff that aren't gifts, like more Christmas lights and bulbs.
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@Espion: i'm thinking the same thing! i'm going to take a look at christmas/celebrations for the last year and budget more aggressively for it. i forgot about christmas parties, treats for friends, little holiday excursions and didn't account for it! that's a lot of what got us.
@Mrs. High Heels: yeah, i think next year, we'll just have parents buy for us and we can reimburse to keep the secret, because it wasn't worth tripling our eating out budget.
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@birdofafeather: We overdid it on our eating out and groceries budget the past two months too! and we didn't even have an excuse because I was still regularly tracking things in YNAB. We just fell into the "oh it's the holidays!" mentality and got lazy about it all.
Not meal planning was probably my biggest downfall. I was just wanted a break from all the cooking!
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@birdofafeather: Could you purchase a visa gift card for each of you with the set amount? Or pull out cash if it's a local purchase?
We have separate accounts for lunches and such, and transfer a set amount out of our joint account to the separate for Christmas/birthday purchases.
what about your work computer isn't compatible with ynab? hopefully they come out with that app sooner rather than later. i'm glad they were able to refund your money though!
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