ANYBODY USE YNAB? You Need A Budge? Or zero based budget?

[HeatherC]

Hi.. Been hearing a lot of good things about YNAB and wonder what others here thought of it.

Is it hard to get started? How do you go about starting it? In other words, do you start on the first of a month or just start with money that is in your checking acct. now?

Would love any input or advice on it before we buy the software package? Or can we do the same thing without the software?

Thanks so much!

 

[newtodcl]

We have been using it for a number of years (along with the app for ease of entering in transactions) and would not be without it. It is refreshing to see how we are doing in each category and watch our savings for various items grow.

I recommend getting started with one of the free online tutorials or utilizing the forums, they have many helpful people like the DIS!)

http://www.youneedabudget.com/support

 

[cmwade77]

I would suggest checking out Mint.com. They are free and can automatically monitor your accounts and what you spend and give money saving advice based on that. It also helps at tax time if you use turbotax, as it integrates with it and can help you find deductions.

Mint also tells you how much you are spending in each category, it can also review as far back as your accounts have online information.

 

[RitaE]

I use both Mint and YNAB. I've never had much success with Mint for the budgeting aspect but I really like it for monitoring all my account balances and investment returns etc. I use YNAB for our budget and now that I have it in place and I'm fully buffered, I can't imagine ever wanting to leave it. As far as for budgeting our everyday spending, it does exactly what we need.

I think it does take awhile to get going with YNAB because most people end up customizing their categories to suit their particular habits. You can start at anytime, you just need to know your account balances and then what you plan to do with those funds.

Yes, the program is designed to start with exactly the money you have now and what your plans are to do with that money. If you want to do "projection" type budgets for paychecks you haven't received yet, it is best to keep those in a separate spreadsheet or out in a future month where it doesn't mess with your current numbers.

There is a free 30 day trial and there is usually a discount code for about $6 off I think floating around.

 

[RCBA]

I use YNAB. I found it super easy to set up and maintain. Recording my transactions forces me to be accountable to my budget. I also have Mint but it just tells me I spent too much in xyz category, oops. Give the YNAB trial a go.

 

[donaldandpirates]

Another for YNAB. I actually learned about it through the Dis. We won't use anything else now.

 

[wiigirl]

I would suggest checking out Mint.com. They are free and can automatically monitor your accounts and what you spend and give money saving advice based on that. It also helps at tax time if you use turbotax, as it integrates with it and can help you find deductions.

Mint also tells you how much you are spending in each category, it can also review as far back as your accounts have online information.

x2...I really really like Mint.

 

[Keishag]

I love YNAB too but it is intense. I usually have to "make a fresh start" which basically wipes out all of your old data and starts a new budget about once a month b/c I get behind on it and it's so frustrating to try to catch up and get all of the totals accurate and matching again.

 

[jmac323]

I'm a new YNABber and so far I love the concepts. I recommend watching the videos and taking the free webinars before getting started as it walks you through the concepts and software. It's only my first month but I'm on board with the premise and I even got DH to participate in the webinars and budgeting with me which is huge. Someone mentioned falling behind on transactions and I can see that happening, but I installed the app and have been able to keep up with everything pretty well. I probably am on YNAB more often then someone who has been doing it awhile, but I think as time goes on it really will not take much time.

 

[mum2simon]

I used mint for about three years....made me aware of money going in and out....but not a real budgeting tool. I started using YNAB last May and it has literally changed our life (I'm not even exaggerating). We had $12k in credit card debt we have been trying to pay off....it wasn't until we started using ynab and budgeting to zero, that we got a good grasp on our finances. I paid the last of the ccs off last week (!!) and have $1000 saved toward our next WDW trip....we are also setting up our 7yo with his own ynab budget this month I highly recommend it!

 

[rlu929s]

YNAB is good because it will carry over any unused budget balances automatically. We generally have every budget category setup this way. A good example is utilities, which can be unpredictable. We put a set amount in and some months (namely Spring & Fall) we build a cushion, however that's gone now with the harsh winter we are having.

I personally use Quickbooks, since I have access to it, but would use YNAB otherwise.

 

[southlakejr]

DH and I just bought the software for YNAB after completing the free trial. We love it. We tried Mint a few years ago and it just didn't work for us the way we wanted.

The things I like about YNAB:

It helps you to really see how much you are spending, in real time.

You create your own categories, and set things to them. Mint categorized for us automatically, which I didn't like. We don't separate eating out from entertainment, or clothes shopping, etc. So we have set up just one category for discretionary spending, which works well for us. (Well, actually three. One for his spending, one for mine, and one for joint spending)

It helps you be intentional with the money you have right now. Now what I will have throughout the month but "I have x number of dollars in my bank account so I'm going to put x towards utilities, x towards groceries" etc.

In one month of using it, we have paid down more debt and put more in savings than I can ever remember doing in one month. And DH's remark was "YNAB has really helped me realize how much the little things add up like a coffee at Starbucks, or how expensive fast food really is"

In short, we love it. There is a free trial, so give it a shot.

 

[mrodgers]

Excel is what I use. Mine tells me which paycheck a bill is due, the balance of the category, what I am at as far as over or under budget and I can take it out 20 years if I am so inclined to do so. It even calculates what my pay is going to be within abou t$10 (I am hourly.)

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I started ynab nov 1, so I on our 4th month. It is awesome! So eye opening to see where money goes and small decisions can make a bigger impact than you would have thought. Also helps keep different budgets separate. For example? I have our personal budget and a rental prop budget. Also love tracking random things like vaca savings, gift savings etc without having them all in different savings accts.

 

[ktmo]

I just finished the free trial and love it. It really does make me think about money differently. I am still trying to account for all the non-monthly bills. I tried Mint but it was hard to track everything. YNAB make you account for everything. it does take a bit to get used to everything.

 

[tink576]

I love YNAB! but it takes a commitment to get into the flow of using it successfully. I'd say it took 2-3 months to really get in the habit of inputting everything and balancing what I needed realistically in each category but I wouldn't go back. For anyone who's visual it's a great tool. I would start where you are right now, input what you need for the rest of the month and go from there.

 

[StephMK]

Thanks for this thread! I bought it at NY on sale and haven't really set it up yet because of the same question. I think I will shoot for Friday since we both get paid that day. I have been using Excel but would love to see the results & better progress that others talk about in regards to their goals and reining in certain spending categories.

 

[vettechick99]

I bought YNAB a few years ago, and had a hard time with it. I guess I'm a dummy. There is a learning curve.

But we recently went through the Dave Ramsey program at our church and learned about his zero-based budget program (Gazelle Budget I think it's called). I like it better because you go ahead and plug in your incomes and divide the amounts in the categories until you have none left. So X goes towards mortgage, X towards your food budget, etc. Then you have that guideline to go by that month. If halfway through the month you overspent on food, it turns red and you have to take budgeted money from somewhere else. You work only on this month, which is best for us. (but also follow his guidelines for a $1000 emergency fund, if you don't have one already).

You don't need to go through the Dave program to understand the software and it's free for 7 days. Worth a looksie.

Gazelle Budget

 

[bettymae1121]

Another vote for YNAB. Been using it for 6-7 months now and it's really helped us make some positive changes. I had to play around with it for a good solid week before it all "clicked" but once it did it was smooth sailing. They have free online tutorials and webinars, which are a big help. Since I still have Quicken, I use it to download all my transactions each morning and I can enter any into YNAB that we may not have added through the smart phone app at point-of-sale. But as long as you keep on top of adding transactions into YNAB (either on the computer or using the app) the program works like a charm!