S/o- YNAB/budgeting apps

[Hilltopmom]

Ok, YNAB people. I’ve been hearing about this for years. Just watched the intro video on their website. Interested.

Lay it on me- your experiences. Pros, cons, amount of time it takes to figure out/use, etc

thanks!

ETA- I’d also take recommendations of other programs/ apps for budgeting. I’m also looking at Mint.

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Hilltopmom

[fraidycat]

Pros - best budgeting app/training hands down. 

Cons - it does take some time to figure it all out, now that it is so "robust" with "features". Scare quotes are deliberate - I've used YNAB since 2010. Not all of the "improvements" actually are, IMO - they just add more complexity and make for a steeper learning curve.

Despite the cons, I still recommend YNAB. It can literally be life changing.

Edited December 30, 2022 by fraidycat

[scholastica]

Doing YNAB with dh right now. It is a learning curve, but we love it. It keeps us organized, focused and on the same page.   It works the way my brain works about these things. A con for me is that reporting is still not as robust as I would like it to be.

[Soror]

I agree with @fraidycat it is the best I've used as well. I tried several years ago and couldn't get it to click. I tried again a little over 2 years when things were very tight here and I finally got it. We used Mint off and on before that and a homemade spreadsheet (dh hated that). The thing that makes Ynab different and more effective than either of those is that there is no forecasting (I believe Every Dollar has the same defect). You can only budget with dollars you actually have. In Mint and in the spreadsheet I'd make budgets but what came to pass may or may not line up with that. 

Ynab is zero based budgeting every dollar is accounted for and it doesn't let you roll over a deficit. So, if you overspend in one category you going to have to find the money elsewhere. 

I HATE subscription services with a fiery passion and would prefer to have the older version BUT it has been well worth the cost many times over.

I'm glad we found Ynab. If we'd been higher earners and not went through a tight period I wouldn't have ever bothered to look. But we weren't. We had to watch our pennies. We had plan and budget and then track to make sure we stayed on track because there was not much wiggle room. Now we're miles better off in the more abundant periods and the leaner periods. 

I know exactly where money goes. I know what we spend on this and that. It is easy to lie to oneself. It is easy to ignore problem spending areas.

We use credit cards that are paid off every month. Before we'd pay them off every month BUT the difference is that it wouldn't be budgeted for until when it was paid. Which meant depending on when a transaction posted it could be up to a month later that it was budgeted for. Now, as soon as a CC purchase is made it is entered into my budget so there is no stress with it. CCs are used just like my bank account. So, we can use CCs for the rewards without worry.

I know that we are doing well for our income and I don't have guilt over that. When things improve I know that we'll be able to use our money more wisely as we'll have a handle on actual necessities instead of passively letting expenses increase.

For me Ynab was the most intensive in the first month. I found Nick True's videos a HUGE help on YouTube. These days I usually reconcile my budget once or twice a week. I often enter transactions right after they occur but not always. You can sync with your bank but I usually don't wait for it to do that. I thought it would be a big deal. It isn't.

But like anything else it only works if you use it!

[73349]

I started using it last year in December & I'm very happy with it. Once you understand the 4 rules and the different kinds of targets you can set for categories if you want, it's not hard to get going. Here's their YouTube channel if you haven't already looked. There are also helpful videos from Nick True.

It's more accurate than looking at my bank balance (pending charges, etc.). Breaking all my money down into categories keeps me from counting money more than once/thinking I have more than I do. I use the flags to keep track of things I've ordered and not yet received or that I don't know yet what the exact price will be. I can filter and see reports on my spending.

I don't sync with my bank, just enter purchases manually and reconcile every few days.

If you use a referral link, such as mine, both you and the person who referred you get a free month.

Edited December 30, 2022 by 73349

[Hilltopmom]

Thanks, I’ll watch some videos. 
I’m feeling overwhelmed right now. 
Might use paper and pencil for now!

[TexasProud]

33 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said:

Thanks, I’ll watch some videos. 
I’m feeling overwhelmed right now. 
Might use paper and pencil for now!

When my husband and I were first married, at least while he was in med school and residency and maybe a little longer, we just had a ledger book.  I attached a photo of part of it. (It had our names in the bottom half, so I left it off.  That is where the loan payments and savings we put each month were).  When we went to the grocery store, we wrote down what we spent on that line.  

Now, we use Mint.  I liked it because we linked our bank accounts.  My husband uses a different program for our investments now.  I do the budget from our bank accounts, savings account and credit cards.  It would automatically put stuff in categories.  I have to go through each month and make sure it categorizes things correctly as it always gets a few things wrong.  As I mentioned somewhere, we have a credit card to earn money for Chevy/GM cars. It was bought out by Marcus.  We are still earning money for the car, but a different company is managing the credit card.  It is a well known glitch. You cannot connect it. Honestly, one of the very few you cannot. So I am now having to enter that by hand, which is a pain because it is our main credit card.  I probably have 75 or more entries each month. ( We pay it off completely each month.)

Now is different than when we first started for a couple of reasons. The first 10 years or so of our marriage, I had to keep an eye on it very carefully.  The ledger system below helped me know in real time how we were doing. Plus, we didn't have much.  Now is much more complicated.  We have much more margin.  Plus, we have pretty stable spending.  We have been married for 32 years and very predictable in what we spend.  It is more a matter of analyzing what we spent each month than really making sure we keep it to the penny because we only have a few pennies. 

Hope that helps.

Edited December 31, 2022 by TexasProud

[Hilltopmom]

Thank you. That’s similar to what I used years ago. I haven’t needed to be as careful with spending since I went back to work and find ourselves spending more than I want in some areas.

[1234]

I’m going to try YNAB for the one month trial and see how it goes. We don’t live paycheck to paycheck but I do think I could get a better handle on some expenses and save more. I already canceled two subscription services I didn’t realize I was still paying while setting it up for next month! I am concerned I will tire of it because my bank won’t allow me to sync with the software so I have to do it all manually. We’ll see how it goes. 🤷‍♀️😁

[Brittany1116]

Since you said you are open to other options, I have used the free version of Every Dollar from D. Ramsey since 2017. I find the manual reconciliation is the most helpful in keeping me on track.

[Just Kate]

I absolutely love YNAB. It has completely changed my family’s financial situation. I always tried budgeting with an excel spreadsheet, but just couldn’t make it work. I used an older system called Mvelopes (I think it’s gone now), tried Mint, and used Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar. But nothing clicked for us. Finally, in October of 2018 I started using YNAB and it just worked. We had credit card debt at the time, which I’d been trying to pay off for a while. YNAB made it easy to pay off the debt and helped us to start using credit cards for points and miles! 
 

YNAB does have a learning curve, but it is really worth it. There is a YNAB group on Facebook that has been so helpful and I would recommend that you join that if you’re interested in giving it a try. It’s called YNAB (You Need a Budget) Fans!

 

[Scarlett]

12 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

Since you said you are open to other options, I have used the free version of Every Dollar from D. Ramsey since 2017. I find the manual reconciliation is the most helpful in keeping me on track.

I like EveryDollar also.  I use the free version.  We have gotten away from it but I was just thinking this morning I want to get back to it.  This seems like a good time to start.  

[Ottakee]

Would YNAB work for a couple with mild mental impairments?  My daughter and her husband need help with reining in spending….esp on food and snacks.    
 

they really don’t want me in charge and their bills are all paid, but they could really save for long term goals with a budget of some sort.

[fraidycat]

49 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Would YNAB work for a couple with mild mental impairments?  My daughter and her husband need help with reining in spending….esp on food and snacks.    
 

they really don’t want me in charge and their bills are all paid, but they could really save for long term goals with a budget of some sort.

I think it would. Especially if they stick with just the basics. Give every dollar a job. Check the budget category balance before spending. Roll with the punches because you can never predict the future 100% of the time.

The best thing about YNAB is that it takes the math out of your head and makes it all plainly visible. You can't double or triple spend the money (mentally, or actually) because it's assigned to specific jobs - so it really helps with savings goals.

I love their philosophy about prioritizing YOUR money the way it works for YOU. There is no "shame game" in the YNAB body of work. They do.not.care. if you prioritize chocolate bars over retirement savings, as long as you are making the decision with all the information, ie: you can see in green and white exactly where your money is going. They make suggestions about best practices, but there is no name-calling and shaming like Dave Ramsey does.

 

 

[ktgrok]

The biggest thing to help you understand YNAB is to learn their vocabulary. The use the word "budget" and "fund" differently than most are used to, if I remember right. (need to reset mine and get back to it)

You fund each category. 

And remember that the credit card lines are there if you want to put money towards paying off a prior balance - do not directly fund those categories for purchases made this month!!! 

So, if you are buying a toaster with a Visa assign that transaction to homegoods, not "Visa". 

[Guest]

I tried to use YNAB several years ago. The one part I struggled with was “zero balance” concept. I had several accounts with “whatever” money in them and could never figure out how to account that in the system. For example, private school tuition and property taxes, two things that were only paid once or twice a year. When we would sell a house, we would get “windfall” money and I would put it in one of those whatever accounts. Then, when I had to pay for those things, I would pay it out of those accounts. It was the same if someone had an expensive dental procedure or the dog had cancer or…whatever. I didn’t necessarily save a certain amount of money for dog surgery, but I used my whatever accounts to manage that. 
 

I wouldn’t be opposed to trying YNAB again, though. 

[Soror]

17 minutes ago, Quill said:

I tried to use YNAB several years ago. The one part I struggled with was “zero balance” concept. I had several accounts with “whatever” money in them and could never figure out how to account that in the system. For example, private school tuition and property taxes, two things that were only paid once or twice a year. When we would sell a house, we would get “windfall” money and I would put it in one of those whatever accounts. Then, when I had to pay for those things, I would pay it out of those accounts. It was the same if someone had an expensive dental procedure or the dog had cancer or…whatever. I didn’t necessarily save a certain amount of money for dog surgery, but I used my whatever accounts to manage that. 
 

I wouldn’t be opposed to trying YNAB again, though. 

Hmmm. If I'm understanding you correctly... You could have the money in that account listed as whatever money if you like. It doesn't matter. It is just every dollar has a job. That job could be listed as whatever or emergency fund or private school tuition.

For things I pay yearly I have a separate line item in my budget that gets funded every month. I also have it set up with a goal but that isn't required. I like the goal because it automatically tells me how much to fund it each month to make it by the desired date. If I had that money all at once I'd just label it as whatever it is set aside for and park it with no goal. I have house, car, and medical funds that are just parked for bigger expenses to come up. Known regular expenses- yearly house insurance, car insurance, real estate taxes, Christmas etc have sinking funds with goals.

One of my favorite things about ynab is that it helps me easily save up for things whether they are yearly or some random future expense. I can also track such things. I could have a good chunk of money but he ynab poor as we say, because all of it is already allocated to upcoming expenses. It is hard with modern busy lives to keep track of everything so people get surprised when regularly occurring expenses occur.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Soror

[Brittany1116]

1 hour ago, Soror said:

Hmmm. If I'm understanding you correctly... You could have the money in that account listed as whatever money if you like. It doesn't matter. It is just every dollar has a job. That job could be listed as whatever or emergency fund or private school tuition.

For things I pay yearly I have a separate line item in my budget that gets funded every month. I also have it set up with a goal but that isn't required. I like the goal because it automatically tells me how much to fund it each month to make it by the desired date. If I had that money all at once I'd just label it as whatever it is set aside for and park it with no goal. I have house, car, and medical funds that are just parked for bigger expenses to come up. Known regular expenses- yearly house insurance, car insurance, real estate taxes, Christmas etc have sinking funds with goals.

One of my favorite things about ynab is that it helps me easily save up for things whether they are yearly or some random future expense. I can also track such things. I could have a good chunk of money but he ynab poor as we say, because all of it is already allocated to upcoming expenses. It is hard with modern busy lives to keep track of everything so people get surprised when regularly occurring expenses occur.

This is the way Every Dollar is designed, as well. I pay a few things annually. Every month in my app, I fund "renewals" as a subaccount in my bank so I can have it ready when due. 

[ScoutTN]

I have been using YNAB, but not well. More expense tracking than active budgeting. I need to dig in, learn it better, and make it work for us this year. I find it intimidating.
 

I will be watching some of the suggested videos and maybe joining the FB group. 

[scholastica]

2 hours ago, Soror said:

Hmmm. If I'm understanding you correctly... You could have the money in that account listed as whatever money if you like. It doesn't matter. It is just every dollar has a job. That job could be listed as whatever or emergency fund or private school tuition.

For things I pay yearly I have a separate line item in my budget that gets funded every month. I also have it set up with a goal but that isn't required. I like the goal because it automatically tells me how much to fund it each month to make it by the desired date. If I had that money all at once I'd just label it as whatever it is set aside for and park it with no goal. I have house, car, and medical funds that are just parked for bigger expenses to come up. Known regular expenses- yearly house insurance, car insurance, real estate taxes, Christmas etc have sinking funds with goals.

One of my favorite things about ynab is that it helps me easily save up for things whether they are yearly or some random future expense. I can also track such things. I could have a good chunk of money but he ynab poor as we say, because all of it is already allocated to upcoming expenses. It is hard with modern busy lives to keep track of everything so people get surprised when regularly occurring expenses occur.

We add a note the category name telling how often and how much goes to the accrual. For example, Subscriptions $46/check is the name of a category. In the notes section, my dh has listed the amounts for each subscription and how often they bill. 

We also have a category called “Reserve” where we keep windfall money until we decide how to parcel it out.

[73349]

On 12/31/2022 at 12:17 PM, Ottakee said:

Would YNAB work for a couple with mild mental impairments?  My daughter and her husband need help with reining in spending….esp on food and snacks.    
they really don’t want me in charge and their bills are all paid, but they could really save for long term goals with a budget of some sort.

It might work best if you set up the initial categories for them, but yes, it's pretty easy to navigate.

[matrips]

Love it.  Give it a good 1-3 months- it can be tough to reconcile accounts at first.  But the overall savings are amazing.  As is the peace of mind for having the money when needed.

Start with basic categories, and then add as needed. 
mine doesn’t download from the banks over the weekend so it can be a pain to wait for the transactions, but otherwise I reconcile daily if possible .  Reconcile more frequently vs less frequently.  Much easier to find any mistakes or missing transactions.

[Lecka]

I decided to sign up for the free trial last night.  
 

I found a re-cutting expense that is now how I thought it was, and my husband and I are going to call about it tomorrow.  It’s the kind of phone call we both hate but we are committed to doing it.  It should not be too bad.  
 

And I put in several annual bills and I’m surprised how much they add up to be monthly if we did set aside money monthly.  This has snuck up on us and I think we definitely need to start a savings account for these things.  It would be a 3rd savings account and then we would still have an emergency fund savings account.  It was always intended that we would pay these kinds of things out of the emergency fund, but then we don’t have clarity on how much money we actually have for emergencies.  
 

Since we moved now a lot of our annual bills are clumped together more than they used to be.  
 

I looked through our checking account since September and I looked at our utilities — I had forgotten how high our electric bill is in the summer.  
 

I thought that would help me estimate some spending categories but I feel very up in the air.

 

My husband doesn’t want to do it but he will tell me things — I think he can carry cash for things that aren’t “household expenses” and that will work for us.  
 

I had a time years ago where my husband didn’t carry his weight with thinking about money, but he is much better now and he handles some other financial things.  Realistically though it looks like I am going to move money into a 3rd savings account and take care of those details.  
 

My husband is also in denial of the inflation of the past year, but he is not in denial of how much things cost and he does understand it’s expensive to buy groceries and things like that.  When I was frustrated with him he was in denial of all household costs.  So — I can live with him being in denial of inflation — I think he is just going to think we must be spending more from lifestyle creep, while I think we have to actually cut back to have the same dollar expenses.  But I think at this point if we are on the same page it is going to be fine.  
 

We have also been getting amazing deals on grilling meat lately, so it’s like — oh, this food is so expensive, but now it’s the same price as getting some grilling meat, so — my husband and oldest son have been really enjoying that!  

[matrips]

1 hour ago, ScoutTN said:

I have been using YNAB, but not well. More expense tracking than active budgeting. I need to dig in, learn it better, and make it work for us this year. I find it intimidating.
 

I will be watching some of the suggested videos and maybe joining the FB group. 

The budgeting part for me comes in with assigning dollars to each category.  I have targets for everything- whether it’s a target amount to spend by the end of the month (mortgage, utilities, gas for cars, groceries), or a target savings amount each month (savings for a new roof/car/Christmas/clothing).  Virtually no category is without a target.  It may be just $5 a month toward dog toys/supplies, but it still has a target.  Then when I spend money, chances are that I have enough in that category.  It will take time to build up, so don’t worry about ‘wamming’ (I think that’s what it called when you have to move money in to cover an expense).  If you frequently do that, then increase your target.  It is truly amazing.  I think we’re on the 3rd or 4th year and I will be gifting this to my young adults.  My husband was in an accident recently that totaled his car, but our car savings category has enough money in it from saving each month for years that it’s okay.

[fraidycat]

35 minutes ago, Lecka said:

I decided to sign up for the free trial last night.  
 

I found a re-cutting expense that is now how I thought it was, and my husband and I are going to call about it tomorrow.  It’s the kind of phone call we both hate but we are committed to doing it.  It should not be too bad.  
 

And I put in several annual bills and I’m surprised how much they add up to be monthly if we did set aside money monthly.  This has snuck up on us and I think we definitely need to start a savings account for these things.  It would be a 3rd savings account and then we would still have an emergency fund savings account.  It was always intended that we would pay these kinds of things out of the emergency fund, but then we don’t have clarity on how much money we actually have for emergencies.  
 

Since we moved now a lot of our annual bills are clumped together more than they used to be.  
 

I looked through our checking account since September and I looked at our utilities — I had forgotten how high our electric bill is in the summer.  
 

I thought that would help me estimate some spending categories but I feel very up in the air.

 

My husband doesn’t want to do it but he will tell me things — I think he can carry cash for things that aren’t “household expenses” and that will work for us.  
 

I had a time years ago where my husband didn’t carry his weight with thinking about money, but he is much better now and he handles some other financial things.  Realistically though it looks like I am going to move money into a 3rd savings account and take care of those details.  
 

My husband is also in denial of the inflation of the past year, but he is not in denial of how much things cost and he does understand it’s expensive to buy groceries and things like that.  When I was frustrated with him he was in denial of all household costs.  So — I can live with him being in denial of inflation — I think he is just going to think we must be spending more from lifestyle creep, while I think we have to actually cut back to have the same dollar expenses.  But I think at this point if we are on the same page it is going to be fine.  
 

We have also been getting amazing deals on grilling meat lately, so it’s like — oh, this food is so expensive, but now it’s the same price as getting some grilling meat, so — my husband and oldest son have been really enjoying that!  

Just a quick note before you open another account, YNAB is much easier to use/do/keep track of with fewer accounts.

You can have one savings account with $10,000 in it and assign $7,000 to E-fund and $3,000 to annual expenses, for example.
 

The more accounts you have, the more complicated it gets to reconcile and keep track of which money is where when something needs to be paid.  You (general, not necessarily individual) are more likely to fall off the bandwagon and give up when it is more complicated.

Hypocritical moment here - because I actually run three budgets, the most complicated of which has 3 chequing accounts, 1 savings account, and 4 credit cards that we actively use for various rewards purposes. The other two budgets have a chequing, savings, and 1 active credit card each. It's a lot, but I've been a YNAB user for 12 years, and I did not start out this complicated! At that time we had one income in one currency. Now we have employment income, retirement income, and business income/expenses in two different currencies, hence the need for multiple budgets.

Edited January 1, 2023 by fraidycat

[LaughingCat]

Another YNAB lover (I have the old PC version that is not subscription) -- agree with everyone else that it takes a while to "get it".  But once you get it, it is like a paradigm shift.  I did Quicken for years before YNAB including lots of tries to budget and follow a budget -- and yet switching to YNAB still made a huge difference for us.  It is the whole envelope thing + being forced to cover unexpected expenses/spending with money you already have IMO. 

OTOH, when one person in a couple is not interested in budgeting numbers -- it can still be useful to keep the money in separate accounts -- so non-budgeting person can see that specific money is already earmarked for X expense (and so not available to be spent on some other needed/wanted thing). 

[PinkTulip]

I have used the free version of EveryDollar for a few years now and really love it. 

[ktgrok]

10 hours ago, Quill said:

I tried to use YNAB several years ago. The one part I struggled with was “zero balance” concept. I had several accounts with “whatever” money in them and could never figure out how to account that in the system. For example, private school tuition and property taxes, two things that were only paid once or twice a year. When we would sell a house, we would get “windfall” money and I would put it in one of those whatever accounts. Then, when I had to pay for those things, I would pay it out of those accounts. It was the same if someone had an expensive dental procedure or the dog had cancer or…whatever. I didn’t necessarily save a certain amount of money for dog surgery, but I used my whatever accounts to manage that. 
 

I wouldn’t be opposed to trying YNAB again, though. 

OH, I realize what you saying, I think. you have a separate checking account or whatever, that you use for annual/etc type things? In ynab there are what they call rainy day items. You could either make separate lines for tuition, property tax, etc and group them all together in that sinking funds section, or just make one "annual fees" line (or even call it "whatever" if you want) and assign the money there. 

I actually have a line that is "emergency fund" that is exactly the same as the balance of my main savings account. So the accounts are one thing, but what you plan to USE the money for is where those lines/categories come into play. So, if you get a windfall you would enter it into the system putting whichever account it goes into, and for category put "annual fees' or "whatever money" or however you choose to label that category. When you spend it, same thing. You don't HAVE to list each annual fee separately, although many do. 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

OH, I realize what you saying, I think. you have a separate checking account or whatever, that you use for annual/etc type things? In ynab there are what they call rainy day items. You could either make separate lines for tuition, property tax, etc and group them all together in that sinking funds section, or just make one "annual fees" line (or even call it "whatever" if you want) and assign the money there. 

I actually have a line that is "emergency fund" that is exactly the same as the balance of my main savings account. So the accounts are one thing, but what you plan to USE the money for is where those lines/categories come into play. So, if you get a windfall you would enter it into the system putting whichever account it goes into, and for category put "annual fees' or "whatever money" or however you choose to label that category. When you spend it, same thing. You don't HAVE to list each annual fee separately, although many do. 

Right but the money in there is not exactly the amount I need for whatever the expense is. So, let’s say there’s $20k in there and the tuition was $12k. So there is $8k hanging around in there until I either put more money in or spend more out. 
 

It may be that I could find a way now but I couldn’t figure it out at the time. I think my solution was to pretend there was no account until I actually needed it. But that’s not sound accounting, obviously. 

[ktgrok]

16 minutes ago, Quill said:

Right but the money in there is not exactly the amount I need for whatever the expense is. So, let’s say there’s $20k in there and the tuition was $12k. So there is $8k hanging around in there until I either put more money in or spend more out. 
 

It may be that I could find a way now but I couldn’t figure it out at the time. I think my solution was to pretend there was no account until I actually needed it. But that’s not sound accounting, obviously. 

Right, that category would have whatever amount, 8K in your example, still in there to roll over to next month. You don't have to spend the categories down to zero each month - some will, but some won't. And some are designed specifically not to - the sinking funds.

[Heartstrings]

Having the app for YNAB has been helpful for me.   I like doing things on my phone.  It also learns the category a transaction should go in which makes categorizing things much faster.  Moving money from category to category is easy too.  
 

I only have it tracking my main checking account.  My credit cards aren’t connected and neither are my other misc. checking or savings account.  That means it’s not accurate accounting but I’m not using it for that.  My main account is the one that needs the budgeting.  

Edited January 2, 2023 by Heartstrings

[Lecka]

Well — I like YNAB and plan to use it for the entire free sample.  
 

My husband is not on board with the app.

 

He is on board with being interested in some spending categories, and telling me what he is spending for me to track, and reducing spending.  
 

He is also on board with trying to figure out all our annual expenses and saving for them monthly.  This is new as previously — we have had fewer and they have been spread out through the year.  Since moving we happen to have our main 3 due in November and December…. Oh and we haven’t formally saved ahead for Christmas before either.  
 

So he is on board, but not with the app.  
 

It’s not the kind of app that will work as intended if only I am using it.  
 

I think our financial situation is simpler than a lot of people have… paid once a month, no credit cards… 

 

So I am thinking for now — track our “problem” categories (maybe on paper), and set up a savings account for known annual expenses.  I would like it to be separate from our emergency fund, so we can easily look at our emergency fund and know how much is for an emergency and not for a known expense.  I think it will cut down the angst over taking money out of the emergency fund.  
 

If it were just me I think it would work well for me.  
 

I think also I can see that just the app would be a shorthand of communication between partners if they both looked at it that way.  
 

It wouldn’t take away that communication step for me.  
 

What I have done so far with the free sample has been helpful for sure, it has helped me get organized and I like the categories.  I really like the “non-monthly” category and I am going to transfer that onto a piece of paper, for sure.  

Really — I feel like the last 3 months with our annual bills plus Christmas, we are going back and forth with my husband saying “why are we transferring money from the emergency fund?” And me saying “but this is legitimate use of the emergency fund.”  I am looking to solve that problem and bring down some known and agreed on overspending.  
 

But I do like this app, I might come back to it after the free sample ends, depending on how things go.  

[ScoutTN]

My husband rarely uses the app, though he doesn’t do most of our spending either. He does generally look at it or consult me before spending any significant amount of money. It still works. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by ScoutTN

[fraidycat]

@Leckait is doable with only one person using it, as long as the other one is willing to tell you which category they spent from and get verbal updates of balances. Like, "we have $50 left in groceries and $43 left in fuel until the end of the month. If needed, we can take from the vacation or Christmas fund - which one do you think we should pull the extra money from?"
 

It's a little more work for the app user, but not impossible. My DH has only started entering his own transactions in the past 2ish years. This was after we paid off all credit card debt and bought a house from only me using it.

[Soror]

I'm the sole ynab user in our household. I don't see that changing until dh graduates. I've pretty much always been the primary one to take care of the budget. Dh often gives me receipts or a heads up- hey stopping by wal-mart for supplies for an oil change. I will keep him updated as @fraidycat mentioned. Rarely he forgets and I'll just ask him as I'm reconciling- hey - "what's this $xx charge to Walmart?" He tells me and I categorize appropriately. I consult with him at the start of the month to see if he has any house or car expenses coming up and to let him know the state of affairs or any changes I think need to be made.

There used to be some conflict here sometimes as he thought I was controlling. With YNAB I finally got it through his head. I'm just doing the budget. The numbers are what the numbers are- either we can afford it or we can't. If I tell you we can't afford it then it is not me being controlling just letting you know the facts. This was all prefaced with going over again our goals on money- which were the same (and we revisit goals regularly especially with changes- we just did that at the beginning of the year). Like I tell him the budget isn't personal and numbers don't lie. The budget doesn't care what you want or even need. It only cares about the balancing the numbers. There either is money or isn't. That is just how it is.

[Lecka]

At this point he is not going to download the app, so I am not optimistic.  
 

I will see over the month.  
 

I will be happy if we cut down fast food, eating out, Steam games (especially things that are on sale), purchasing “watch now” movies on Amazon prime, and look at prices for certain things at the grocery store.   
 

[fraidycat]

Yes, I am still the primary YNAB user. The only thing DH does is enter most of his transactions and participate in money goals discussions.

I'm the one who distributes all the income into the categories, moves money around in the categories to cover overspending or changed priorities, reconciles all accounts, pays all the bills and pay off the cc's each month, etc. 99.9% of the work is me.

DH just enters what he spends when he spends it and lets me know what expenses he anticipates coming up, but this is newer behaviour. It was all me for many years.

Edited January 4, 2023 by fraidycat

[ktgrok]

My husband never even looked at the app or website. I had it set to auto upload transactions, so I could see what he spent, and would ask him for clarification if I needed it, as to what category it went in. Then if we were getting tight on an area I'd bring that up to him, or ask how he wanted me to redistribute things. But he never used the app/website himself. Ever. 

It still helped me pay down our credit cards, etc. 

[*Jessica*]

28 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

My husband never even looked at the app or website. I had it set to auto upload transactions, so I could see what he spent, and would ask him for clarification if I needed it, as to what category it went in. Then if we were getting tight on an area I'd bring that up to him, or ask how he wanted me to redistribute things. But he never used the app/website himself. Ever. 

It still helped me pay down our credit cards, etc. 

That’s how we use it, too.  

[vonfirmath]

6 hours ago, Lecka said:

Well — I like YNAB and plan to use it for the entire free sample.  
...

It’s not the kind of app that will work as intended if only I am using it.  

 

I think our financial situation is simpler than a lot of people have… paid once a month, no credit cards… 

 

 

I dislike paying monthly, so I ended up not using YNAB once they went that way. What is working for me now is The Budget Mom "Budget by Paycheck" method (though if you only have 1 paycheck a month maybe that won't matter at much)

 

[Lecka]

It’s good to know a lot of people are making it work with only one spouse using it!

 

 

[Guest]

This thread induced me to sign up for the free trial (again) and see if I can make YNAB work for me (us). I am another one who would surely never get cooperation from my low-tech dh. He would never use an app. So anything like this I do is for me to manage. Fortunately, dh hardly buys anything, so he doesn’t really mess up my budget. 

[Heartstrings]

8 hours ago, fraidycat said:

@Leckait is doable with only one person using it, as long as the other one is willing to tell you which category they spent from and get verbal updates of balances. Like, "we have $50 left in groceries and $43 left in fuel until the end of the month. If needed, we can take from the vacation or Christmas fund - which one do you think we should pull the extra money from?"
 

It's a little more work for the app user, but not impossible. My DH has only started entering his own transactions in the past 2ish years. This was after we paid off all credit card debt and bought a house from only me using it.

This is why I use the version that downloads transactions directly from my bank.  I know I would never stick to entering transactions myself. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Heartstrings

[Heartstrings]

5 hours ago, ktgrok said:

My husband never even looked at the app or website. I had it set to auto upload transactions, so I could see what he spent, and would ask him for clarification if I needed it, as to what category it went in. Then if we were getting tight on an area I'd bring that up to him, or ask how he wanted me to redistribute things. But he never used the app/website himself. Ever. 

It still helped me pay down our credit cards, etc. 

This is me.  I do all of it, just like I did before we started using YNAB.  I do the majority of the spending because I do the majority of the shopping and all of the bill paying.  His stuff is mostly just gas and random amazon stuff.  I keep a category for his "fun money" for the random stuff.  

[carriede]

I LOVE YNAB and have been using it since it was just an Excel spreadsheet.

The YouTube videos with Hannah are fun to watch and give great ideas on how to take YNAB beyond just a spending tracker.

If anyone has any questions about it, let me know. I feel like this is a kind of hobby of mine. I watch all the videos and listen to all the podcasts. 😆

[Lecka]

I am loving that I looked at “true expenses” and my husband and I are agreed on setting aside money monthly for “true expenses” that — for various reasons now hit in October, November, and December in a huge way.  Apparently just based on when we moved and Christmas — most of our true expenses hit in a big way in these months, and it’s going to be great for us that we are saving every month so we have money available in October, November, and December.  Plus, electricity bills for the summer.  
 

For whatever reason — we have cash and my husband is willing to have me track cash, but he wants to have cash set aside separate from what is in our checking account.  This is hard to explain — but we do have cash, and my husband wants to feel like he has cash savings.  Basically — he wants it to be “outside of” our budget on some level, but he’s willing to track cash spending.  
 

He doesn’t want to do ynab, but he’s willing to take out money for “true expenses,” and he was willing to cancel a lot of subscriptions and we seem to have our subscriptions under control — although I will continue to monitor these better than we have in the past.

 

He just is not willing to look at the app instead of checking accounts — we are going to have our regular plus one for emergency/true expenses — which will be easy to keep track of because it happens to work out easily (because our monthly “true expenses” happens to be a nice round number).  
 

It’s a big step up for us and I am satisfied.  I like ynab and I could see us doing it in the future.  But for now my husband is not on board and we are going to do some paper tracking and watch some things some more, and it is progress for now.  And it was eye-opening to figure out our annual expenses and see how much to save monthly — that was extremely worthwhile with the ynab trial.  

Edited January 31, 2023 by Lecka