Does anyone use YNAB?

[ilovepete]

I've seen it mentioned here, but I searched for threads and didn't see any other than people recommending it, not really a thread talking about it.

I am wondering how everyone likes it that has been using it a while. I have the trial, and it seems neat, but I'm not sure how it would be long term. It seems like a lot of work to enter everything in and keep everything mentally separate even though it is just in one bank account.

The other thing is, we charge everything to a credit card and then pay the balance off in full each month. I am wondering if YNAB would still work for that. And if so, it seems like quite the mental shift in thinking, which maybe I need!

We have enough money to pay our bills each month and other other things that come up like yearly, quarterly things, but I don't know, nothing is planned out. I kind of want to know what to expect and when instead of just dealing with things as they come up. We always have enough to cover things in the end and I'm wondering if we did something like this if it would help us have more money in the bank. It seems sometimes we put money into savings each month and then some months we have to dip into savings if it was a month with a lot of bills due, etc. That works OK now, but I'm wondering if we can do better.

 

[DawnM]

I used it faithfully for 8 months and then had a computer crash and lost EVERYTHING saved in there!

I did start over but it took me 2-3 months to really get back in the swing of things.

When you put $150 in the eating out category, it really does help to see when you are getting close to that $150 mark. The same for other categories.

 

[Karenj2]

I've seen it mentioned here, but I searched for threads and didn't see any other than people recommending it, not really a thread talking about it.

I am wondering how everyone likes it that has been using it a while. I have the trial, and it seems neat, but I'm not sure how it would be long term. It seems like a lot of work to enter everything in and keep everything mentally separate even though it is just in one bank account.

We have/had used it, and really like it. I've lapsed a bit, but I found it very useful and plan to get restarted once DH closes our old bank account. Entering in everything wasn't too bad - what I did was download the info from the various banks/CCs, etc. frequently (once a week at the least), and it only took about 15 minutes to plunk everything into it's appropriate category. It really opens your eyes to what you're spending your money on, which is the point of budgeting...

The other thing is, we charge everything to a credit card and then pay the balance off in full each month. I am wondering if YNAB would still work for that. And if so, it seems like quite the mental shift in thinking, which maybe I need!

YNAB absolutely works for that! Even if you can pay off your bill every month, you might be spending more than you planned on a particular category, which might short you later...

We have enough money to pay our bills each month and other other things that come up like yearly, quarterly things, but I don't know, nothing is planned out. I kind of want to know what to expect and when instead of just dealing with things as they come up. We always have enough to cover things in the end and I'm wondering if we did something like this if it would help us have more money in the bank. It seems sometimes we put money into savings each month and then some months we have to dip into savings if it was a month with a lot of bills due, etc. That works OK now, but I'm wondering if we can do better.

When we used YNAB well, we were able to "find" about $1k a MONTH that we were unaware that we were throwing away on stupid stuff. What I love about YNAB is that it changes your way of thinking - instead of scrounging around in June to make sure you can pay your Auto insurance, you can sock away money in that category each month, then easily pay it when the bill comes. Or, if you put $25 a month into the "dog vet" category a month, if/when your dog gets sick or needs the vet, you don't get shocked by the $200 bill.

The reason we temporarily stopped was because we had been going through fertility treatments, and we had a HUGE initial outlay (it wasn't covered), then kept getting random bills for different procedures. I wasn't able to put away money in advance, because I had no idea what the total cost was going to end up being... But, we've made the decision that we're going to get back on track in July.

Oh, and BTW, the reason you don't see very many posts about using YNAB on this board is that the website has a very large & active forum where you can ask just about anything & get a friendly reply! That was my second home for quite a while! (That was one of my requirements when looking for a budgeting program - I tried Mvelopes, but they didn't have an active forum at the time, and I needed some serious hand-holding...)

 

[U.P. North]

My DH and I have used it now since around Dec 2009. It is the best Budget software we have tried. It is based on the Dave Ramsey theory of giving every dollar a job. We follow our own variation of Dave Ramsey and we hated carrying cash in envelops. With YNAB, we are able to catagorize everything and then allocate to the catagories our paychecks. We even have an YNAB app on our smart phones which allow us to enter our purchases and then sync up to the YNAB software. So you actually take your complete budget with you! since we have been using it for about 3 years, we have seen the evolution of the software and they have a really nice version that is currently available. They keep working to improve it and we see updates to it all the time. One of the things I like is if we find something we think would be nice to have in the software, we can get on their forum and recommend it and it usually ends up in the next couple software updates.

We highley recommend it and you can goto their website and download the trial version and play with it!

Hope this helps!

 

[nboicepardee]

I realize this is an older thread, but I am looking into using YNAB and it seems like a great program based on what I have read online so far. I love that you can track with your iPhone (do I have that correct?). I have been looking for a user friendly way of budgeting. I like a lot of the principles of Dave Ramsey, but, try as I might, I just couldn't keep up with the cash in an envelope system and my husband didn't like it. I would have the cash for groceries, but we needed something at the store and he would be the one stopping there on his way home from work....you get the picture. Too much room for error.
Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[nboicepardee]

One more quick question. Do you think the software is user friendly enough or do you recommend buying the DVD and workbook ("YNAB Works Home Study Guide) with it?
Thanks!

 

[mlulrich]

We have been using YNAB for about four months and I love the software! We have been able to easily track our expenses, plan for upcoming bills and create some additional savings goals. I think that the added expense of the study guide is completely up to you. We chose not to purchase them, and have found that YNAB offers a ton of resources to help you learn the system, including YouTube videos, online classes and tutorials. The DVD/study guide might be a good purchase if you want to have all of the resources in one place, but we've had no problem learning it on our own. Best of luck to you!

 

[vicki_c]

Love YNAB and while I don't think it's difficult to use, I highly recommend attending any of their free webinars. They are great. I didn't know they sold a DVD, that must be more recent.

They have excellent forums as well.

 

[chris31997]

We have tech geek friends who love it and swear by it. It works great for them.

 

[pryncess527]

I realize this is an older thread, but I am looking into using YNAB and it seems like a great program based on what I have read online so far. I love that you can track with your iPhone (do I have that correct?). I have been looking for a user friendly way of budgeting. I like a lot of the principles of Dave Ramsey, but, try as I might, I just couldn't keep up with the cash in an envelope system and my husband didn't like it. I would have the cash for groceries, but we needed something at the store and he would be the one stopping there on his way home from work....you get the picture. Too much room for error.
Thank you for your thoughts!

Yes, you can use you iphone (or android phone) to add spending. It uses the GPS and so takes less than a second to enter something once I've done it at least once. It knows I put gas on my Discover when I'm at the as station and automatically assigns that to the Gas budget. It syncs using Dropbox so DH and I are always on the same page. It has been revolutionary for our household discussions about money.

 

[pryncess527]

One more quick question. Do you think the software is user friendly enough or do you recommend buying the DVD and workbook ("YNAB Works Home Study Guide) with it?
Thanks!

I have just used the web forums and videos to figure it out. It did take me about 2-3 months to really get the hang of it, but the forums helped a lot

There are $6 off coupons to be found online, but they are referral links so I do not want to post one here and break the rules

 

[MissVeronica]

I own it and from time to time I try to use it, but I never seem to get things to balance correctly. I need to watch the videos, but it just never seems worth the effort.

I'm on the Dave Ramsey boards and I prefer to use that budget instead.

 

[nboicepardee]

Yes, you can use you iphone (or android phone) to add spending. It uses the GPS and so takes less than a second to enter something once I've done it at least once. It knows I put gas on my Discover when I'm at the as station and automatically assigns that to the Gas budget. It syncs using Dropbox so DH and I are always on the same page. It has been revolutionary for our household discussions about money.

Wow! I didn't even realize it could do all that! That might take me some time to figure out but I am excited to get started.

 

[nboicepardee]

Thank you for all the feedback. I appreciate everyone's thoughts.