|
Briantist posted:I don't use a lot of cash, but I find it easy enough to use a Cash account in YNAB. Every other account is accurate to the cent, Cash is accurate to the dollar for me. A $3.25 muffin is $4.00. If I buy that muffin tomorrow and use a quarter from today's change, it will be a $3.00 muffin. If I buy a bagel for $3.95 and count out $0.95 in change from car then it's a $3 bagel. Basically for me it's not cash that isn't real, it's change. This makes a cash account super easy and mostly accurate. Cash is accurate to the $20 bill for me on YNAB. Its the most annoying thing to track because I don't ever save my quarters, dollars are lost here and there in the laundry (and later found).
|
# ? May 31, 2013 18:20 |
|
|
# ? May 6, 2024 03:05 |
|
I never track cash in YNAB. If I get a large amount of cash I deposit it and track it as income. When I make a cash withdrawal at an ATM or get cash back it comes out of whatever category I needed the cash for. Any cash left over from it's initial purpose can be used freely.
|
# ? Jun 3, 2013 14:39 |
|
These are fairly close to what I can personally manage for cash as well. For cash received, I rarely need to deposit it anymore, but I do convert it in my records: It typically becomes "food money". Any ATM withdrawals either go to cash for food or for laundry. The laundry cash tends to become quarters, so it's very easy to keep that isolated, and the remaining cash is typically always for food and nothing else. I don't track individual food purchases made with cash, but at least all the change tends to get used as food money in the future. In the rare events that I've spent cash for something else, I've entered some minimal record for the sake of fairness to account balances.
|
# ? Jun 3, 2013 15:59 |
|
Well, hell. I'm glad I popped in here if for no other reason than to find out YNAB has a demo. I'm going to check that out once I get to my home computer. I've struggled here and there with managing my money, but fortunately the worst that's happened is I have $200 more on my credit card than I thought I did. The only debt I have is $400 remaining on my laptop, which I'm going to knock out this month. I've been tinkering around with a new budget, as in a couple months my rent/utilities change significantly, and the following month my cell phone bill is probably going to go up. So the theme of my new budget is that I figure out my monthly bills and ballpark my food/booze/video game expenses, and bank the rest. I've got a big trip to Disney in November and I'm concerned about how much that is going to cost me, so I figure shoving as much money as possible into savings to prepare for that is a good strategy. The first draft of my new, default budget looks like so. It's very simple because I don't have car payments or student loans and so on. quote:MONTHLY: 1858 I'm having trouble, though, in parting an Emergency Fund from a long-term, not-vacation fund. My current estimate is that I've got 6 or 7 months of cushion, which seems like a good amount to me. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure what to do. Anything past a bog-standard savings account is way over my head. To complicate things further, I'm a state university employee and part of some pension system I don't entirely understand. All I know is they take around $200 a month, which I don't see until I retire (and being 26 that seems so far away as to not be any issue) or, I think, when I leave the University. Maybe. Fair enough, but am I supposed to be long-term/retirement saving something else on the side?
|
# ? Jun 4, 2013 17:04 |
|
morcant posted:Stuff Sorry this doesn't address your retirement question but there is almost no reason to be paying $100/mo for smartphone stuff anymore. There are a lot of cell re-sellers out there really undercut the biggies while still using their towers. My wife has straight talk, walmart's plan, it's $45/mo for unlimited calling/text and 2GB data a month on ATTs towers. We brought our own phone there (bought a $200 Galaxy SII) and it works awesome. There are even better deals out there, but your best bet is to pick a company that's going to be using the best service in your area (att/vz/tmo/sprint). If you're interested there is a lot of good info in the pre-paid cellphone thread in IYG. Otherwise I think you're looking ok. You're saving money and you have a good emergency fund. Always "pay yourself" before you start the fun stuff. That means paying all your bills, saving what you want, and then worrying about how much left over you have for booze and games, etc.
|
# ? Jun 4, 2013 18:51 |
|
morcant posted:I'm having trouble, though, in parting an Emergency Fund from a long-term, not-vacation fund. My current estimate is that I've got 6 or 7 months of cushion, which seems like a good amount to me. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure what to do. Instead, start with some estimates: Driving or flying? What are the current daily ticket prices? How much do you think you'll eat/drink in the park per day? If you'll be at a hotel, find some median prices online now. How much will you spend on souvenirs and/or gifts? Will you go out to eat each night? Get a total and see if it matches what people are saying online. Add 5-20%, divide by five, and that's how much you need to save for each of the next five months. Budget that amount into "vacation", and drop the rest in the emergency or capital expense fund. Check the personal finance thread for suggestions about better utility for the remaining money past your six-months' emergency fund (CDs, money markets, bonds, Roth, etc.)
|
# ? Jun 4, 2013 22:36 |
|
Just wanted to chime in that I've been using the demo version of YNAB, and it's been like an epiphany. Once you get all the dollars doing their own jobs, everything seems so much easier, and you feel like you have so much more control than when you have the illusion of flexibility that comes without a budget (and it is just an illusion). If anyone who doesn't budget yet comes across this post, I highly recommend YNAB - you know, because You Need A Budget.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 02:12 |
|
OrangeKing posted:Just wanted to chime in that I've been using the demo version of YNAB, and it's been like an epiphany. Once you get all the dollars doing their own jobs, everything seems so much easier, and you feel like you have so much more control than when you have the illusion of flexibility that comes without a budget (and it is just an illusion). If anyone who doesn't budget yet comes across this post, I highly recommend YNAB - you know, because You Need A Budget. Also want to agree here. It's incredibly powerful and makes me feel really safe when I actually do spend something, because it's accounted for in my budget. Plus one license is good for multiple computers so we don't have to purchase separate copies for all the computers in the house. I was using Mint before and it didn't help me budget at all. It beats a spreadsheet by far too in case anyone is wondering.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 03:15 |
Knyteguy posted:Also want to agree here. It's incredibly powerful and makes me feel really safe when I actually do spend something, because it's accounted for in my budget. Plus one license is good for multiple computers so we don't have to purchase separate copies for all the computers in the house. I was using Mint before and it didn't help me budget at all. It beats a spreadsheet by far too in case anyone is wondering. Though if you were an intermediate-level excel wizard you could easily recreate a less-pretty version of YNAB for yourself. I bought the program anyway, though, because it's excellent.
|
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 12:37 |
|
Well last night I grabbed a cup, tossed my two credit cards in, filled the cup with water and stuck it in the freezer. I've been spending too much on fast food at/after work. I think this will help my wife and I try to consolidate our shopping trips anyway. I'll probably delete my credit card numbers from Amazon too. If an emergency happens I'll just go to the bank with my ID and get some cash out. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 5, 2013 |
# ? Jun 5, 2013 14:42 |
|
Orange_Lazarus posted:Well last night I grabbed a cup, tossed my two credit cards in, filled the cup with water and stuck it in the freezer. I've been spending too much on fast food at/after work. I think this will help my wife and I try to consolidate our shopping trips anyway. I'll probably delete my credit card numbers from Amazon too. Old thread closed and you already fell off the wagon. Jay slash kay bro.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 15:12 |
|
Can this still be the monthly, "I stuck to/was under my budget " or the "I on a spending spree and went way over budget " thread? I really enjoyed seeing other people's budgets and whether or not they stuck to them. Yeah, I went a solid month and then for some reason my wife and I fell off the wagon. Thankfully she got an unexpected bonus a couple months ago that puts us where I expected to be.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 16:43 |
|
Shadowhand00 posted:OP - you may also want to add the 4 rules of YNAB into the OP as well as the webinars they have available... I figured I'd give the thread a chance at infancy before I started the debate on this point so as to provide new readers a chance to grab some starter info before having to wade through pages of philosophical crap, but I'll have to say that I'll pass. We've already seen, in our mere two score posts, that there are different methodologies that are effective, and some will not work given people's circumstances or styles. Were I to build a section for budgeting philosophies, instead of basic techniques, I should want to at least attempt to be fair and thorough. To wit, here is "Part One" of some notions about your money: YNAB says: Give every dollar a job, Save for a rainy day, Roll with the punches, and Live on last month's income. (I'm not sure I even agree with the third). A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1845), by Catherine Esther Beecher, Chapter 16, might roughly be summarized as suggesting the following:
PhantomOfTheCopier fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Jun 5, 2013 |
# ? Jun 5, 2013 16:56 |
|
dreesemonkey posted:Cell phones Wow, that definitely sounds a lot better than my barely-functional 3G coverage through Sprint for $92/mo. I'm coming up on the end of my contract in October, and was looking into Verizon's monthly stuff as my next provider, since Sprint's local coverage is not very good at all. I'd like to upgrade to an iPhone 5 (especially if the 5S/6/whatever drives down the price a bit), and beyond that all I really want is reliable data coverage. I've been posting a little in the Recommend Me a Phone/Plan thread, and am hoping the 5 shows up on Verizon's pay-as-you-go plan by the time my contact's up. I'll definitely take another look at Straight Talk, though, as I remember AT&T's local coverage being pretty good when I had my 3GS a couple years back. dreesemonkey posted:Otherwise I think you're looking ok. You're saving money and you have a good emergency fund. Always "pay yourself" before you start the fun stuff. That means paying all your bills, saving what you want, and then worrying about how much left over you have for booze and games, etc. Thanks for the advice, as well. I'll switch around the order of my budget - which might help as I've spent a good chunk of the morning trying to figure out why I have $100 more than I thought I would. Also looking into my YNAB demo (which I downloaded but didn't boot up yet) would also probably help, since PNC's Virtual Wallet machine has a delay that confounds me and regularly ends up with me adding more to my credit card than I thought. PhantomOfTheCopier posted:To bounce off dreesemonkey's comment about paying yourself before the fun stuff, my only caution would be that having a big, catch-all account might seem simple, but it's also a bit too easy to rape it without noticing. "Oh, I need $20 extra for this thing here and I can get it a week early because I have $5000 sitting in emergency+vacation+stuff and $20 is 'nothing'" is what leads to credit cards and no vacations. Before my "throw all my money in a bin" plan, I got a little nervous especially as I started researching my November trip to Disney. I've never been there, and have no real idea how much I'll be eating/drinking out aside from maybe Drinking Around the World in Epcot. I've calculated the cost of park tickets ($160) and airfare ($336), but beyond that, I'm sort of floundering. My friend is footing the majority of the hotel bill, and has asked for $300 for it, with more appreciated but not necessary. Because I investigated and saw just how drat expensive the room is, I'd like to save a good deal more to give to him. I should probably just pick a number, I guess. But all of that is extremely helpful. I'm extremely new at doing anything beyond paying my bills and being with the rest, but I'll definitely do some research and see what I turn up with. I'll report back when I have something. One last thing - I have a Cash Back credit card, so most of the time I want to put purchases on that so I can slowly accumulate "free" money. However, given that I can't pay off the balance until it's posted on the card (sometimes days later), I end up losing track of what I spent when and when I turn around I've got almost $300 on my card that I barely remember spending. I don't know if YNAB would help with that, and/or I'm just an idiot when it comes to money.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 17:54 |
|
Orange_Lazarus posted:Can this still be the monthly, "I stuck to/was under my budget " or the "I on a spending spree and went way over budget " thread? I really enjoyed seeing other people's budgets and whether or not they stuck to them. What's the wiggle room in your budget? Some of your other posts make it sound like you went on a financial crash-diet - which is about as successful as a food crash-diet.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 18:28 |
|
morcant posted:Before my "throw all my money in a bin" plan, I got a little nervous especially as I started researching my November trip to Disney. I've never been there, and have no real idea how much I'll be eating/drinking out aside from maybe Drinking Around the World in Epcot. I've calculated the cost of park tickets ($160) and airfare ($336), but beyond that, I'm sort of floundering. My friend is footing the majority of the hotel bill, and has asked for $300 for it, with more appreciated but not necessary. Because I investigated and saw just how drat expensive the room is, I'd like to save a good deal more to give to him. I should probably just pick a number, I guess. When I'm estimating unknown expenses, especially ones like a trip or vacation, I usually build out a reasonable minimum estimate using the major ticket items, and then just adding 50-100% of that cost on to it. So if you're already on the hook for $800 in major travel expenses, you're actually probably looking at about $1200-1600 in total with all other stuff included. I always figure if you overbudget and underspend, you'll never be stuck telling your friend you can't chip in as much as you'd like on the room or calculating your shared dinners out down to the penny to make sure you're within budget. Then you go in frugally, don't spend everything you've allocated, and you've got some extra savings set aside already.
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 18:44 |
|
morcant posted:Wow, that definitely sounds a lot better than my barely-functional 3G coverage through Sprint for $92/mo. I'm 95% sure straight talk can use verizon towers as well, but your mileage may vary depending on your location. One thing to consider is with straight talk you're either buying an unsubsidized phone up front, or bringing one with you that you already have. One downside is that you're limited to 3G speeds, I think, but personally 3G is good enough for me. Orange_Lazarus posted:Can this still be the monthly, "I stuck to/was under my budget " or the "I on a spending spree and went way over budget " thread? I really enjoyed seeing other people's budgets and whether or not they stuck to them. I was hoping this was allowed in the new thread as well dreesemonkey fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jun 5, 2013 |
# ? Jun 5, 2013 18:50 |
morcant posted:One last thing - I have a Cash Back credit card, so most of the time I want to put purchases on that so I can slowly accumulate "free" money. However, given that I can't pay off the balance until it's posted on the card (sometimes days later), I end up losing track of what I spent when and when I turn around I've got almost $300 on my card that I barely remember spending. I don't know if YNAB would help with that, and/or I'm just an idiot when it comes to money. For me it has, it shifts your thinking from account-based to category-based. So yeah, say I've got a $1620 credit card bill, that's now no big deal because the spending was from, say, $450 car maintenance category, $300 groceries, $600 wedding, $120 his/her/family entertainment, and $150 insurance. All the categories were either saved over months (car maintenance and wedding) and the funds have been sitting in whatever account or are recurring expenses and they renew each paycheque or month. I just have a calendar update telling me to make sure my chequing balance = my monthly statement balance like a week before the bill comes out, and I have the CC company draw the full amount automatically each month. It has resolved 100% of the stress associated with using a credit card.
|
|
# ? Jun 5, 2013 23:29 |
|
Shadowhand00 posted:OP - you may also want to add the 4 rules of YNAB into the OP as well as the webinars they have available... And Part Two (of Two): Luca Pacioli, in Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalità (1494), contains the first codification of double-entry accounting, titled Particularis de Computis et Scripturis. While the audience was primarily merchants, it contains discussions of: Credits, debits, cash, capital, inventories, journals, ledgers, what we now call savings and checking accounts, loans, household expenses, keeping receipts and (bank) statements, how to keep a (running/checkbook) balance, and retention of records. Many of the discussions are pertinent to keeping records for the sake of budgets, but it's more of a general expectation than a specific chapter. Oeconomicus (c. 362 BCE), by Xenophon of Athens, starts with a dialogue about the economics of household management, and makes the following points:
Perhaps I should consolidate that to a few buzzwords and call it Xenophinance, but mantras really aren't my thing. I proffer that effective budgeting seems as much about proper and efficient use of money as it is about keeping records.
|
# ? Jun 6, 2013 02:35 |
|
PhantomOfTheCopier posted:And Part Two (of Two): I'm actually really enjoying reading through these things. I agree with you - a mantra or process being repeated about budgeting is no use unless the person reading the process or mantra understands the framework of what they're trying to implement. in this case, effective budgeting seems to be a combination of a few things - efficient use of money, clear record keeping, and finally, discipline to be responsible with your money. The last seems to be the most important. I've been budgeting for a while now and I've been doing well in making sure I don't spend outside of my means, but I'm definitely guilty of frivolous spending from time to time. The framework and process helps keep me in place though and brings me back when I do spend frivolously outside my budget.
|
# ? Jun 6, 2013 04:24 |
|
Shadowhand00 posted:I'm actually really enjoying reading through these things.... efficient use of money, clear record keeping, and finally, discipline to be responsible with your money.
|
# ? Jun 6, 2013 04:57 |
PhantomOfTheCopier posted:
I'm moving to Edmonton soon and I've discovered there's a CSA there that does this. It seems brilliant and they don't have any shares left but I'm going to volunteer with them and do some gardening when I get there. I mean, it's free education and socialization! These seem to be taking hold in a few places: http://www.backyardcsa.com/ http://cultivatetoronto.com/join-the-harvest/share-your-yard/
|
|
# ? Jun 6, 2013 12:58 |
|
PhantomOfTheCopier posted:You'd be the only one! Feel free to read the primary sources and disagree with my summaries, but I did feel it better to post the walls of text in an attempt to clarify some of the authors' intents per seriatim. I think the discipline part is difficult for most people. All they have to do is find some structure and process where they constantly hear their mother's voice in their heads: "Now Phantom, if you buy that you won't have any money left when we go out for ice cream"; or their father's voice in their heads: "You waste your money on that and I'll beat you with it." You're telling me. I have a ring fund going right now but its extremely tempting to borrow from my ring fund to fund "fun! right now!" stuff. Takes a bit more discipline than I seem to have right now.
|
# ? Jun 6, 2013 17:13 |
|
As a recent college graduate, this is definitely becoming a frequented bookmark (even though I should already have taught myself to budget). Thanks for the post -- with the help, I may be able to afford to gingerly kick the real world life once (maybe twice...but I don't want to risk it).
|
# ? Jun 7, 2013 00:36 |
Crossposting from another thread I post in in this subforum... Mint doesn't seem to be pulling info from one of our accounts because the card number changed and we didn't fix it for a couple of weeks. Now it's just missing that couple of weeks of transactions instead of refreshing with all of them. What's the easiest way to fix this? Just enter them all manually? It's only like a dozen transactions.
|
|
# ? Jun 7, 2013 16:27 |
|
I would manually enter them. Does Mint have the ability to reconcile after the fact? That might help in ensuring you captured all of your items.
|
# ? Jun 7, 2013 17:58 |
|
Just bumping to say that tossing the cards in the freezer really has worked. The first few days at work were tough. The clock would strike 12:00 and my brain would suddenly start going over what I was going to buy to eat that day, then I would remember that I didn't have my credit card. So I walked to the fridge, begrudgingly grabbed and apple and carried on. Today I look forward to getting an apple, carrots or a sandwich packed from home. I'm starting to realize there really isn't a need for me to carry money around (plastic or cash) on a daily basis for any reason. When I need gas I'll go to the bank with my drivers license. If there's an emergency and for some reason I really need money I'll just go to a bank with my drivers license. I pass by my bank 3-4 times on the way home each day and my wife is always just a phonecall away. Engineer Lenk posted:What's the wiggle room in your budget? Some of your other posts make it sound like you went on a financial crash-diet - which is about as successful as a food crash-diet. Yeah I gave that impression before and put some wiggle room in my current budget. If I don't meet my budget I still save quite a bit and we're happy whether we meet our budget or not, I would just rather meet my budget and save a little more each month. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Jun 12, 2013 |
# ? Jun 12, 2013 17:44 |
|
Is there any way to budget for large one time purchases in Mint? I've been experimenting with their budget features for the last month or so and mostly have everything categorized and working smoothly now. But, it seems like if I make the rare big purchase here and there, like a new computer or something, my budget for the month is going to be very skewed.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:13 |
|
There are basically two ways to handle non-standard budgeting in Mint. 1) You can set up a budget category that is intended for a non-monthly purchase. So, for instance, my budget includes a 'seasonal spending' category that comes up twice a year. This is to account for when we switch from warm to cold weather (or vice versa) and discover that we need to get something because moths ate a wool coat/sheets are looking threadbare/etc. What this does in Mint is set aside 1/6 of that budget amount each month, and then has it available to spend in the scheduled month. 2) If you are talking about a totally one-off purchase, you can use the 'goal' function to account for this. Basically you can play with how much you want to contribute vs. your timeframe and establish a goal payment (say, $50 a month to buy a new computer until you reach $800 or whatever). That goal payment then becomes part of your budget each month until the goal is met. It works best if you connect it to a specific account, but that is more applicable to larger/longer goals like retirement or emergency funds, because it's not like you are going to open a separate savings account for your computer money.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:23 |
|
Looks like I have an opportunity coming up to shave $300 bucks or so off of my housing budget as we may be moving to a smaller home (probably 1200sqft instead of 1600) so I assume our utilities will decrease a bit as well. Things are going great this month. My card is still frozen and I'm still munching on healthy food I've prepared from home every day at work.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:26 |
|
Ashcans posted:There are basically two ways to handle non-standard budgeting in Mint. Thanks! I like your idea of setting up categories like your seasonal spending category. One question, where is the Goal feature in Mint? I actually didn't realize it had such a feature, and exploring around the UI hasn't revealed anything to me.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:30 |
Orange_Lazarus posted:Looks like I have an opportunity coming up to shave $300 bucks or so off of my housing budget as we may be moving to a smaller home (probably 1200sqft instead of 1600) so I assume our utilities will decrease a bit as well. Things are going great this month. My card is still frozen and I'm still munching on healthy food I've prepared from home every day at work. Congrats, act quickly and automatically save that poo poo away or send it to debt before you even notice it!
|
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:43 |
|
DarkJC posted:Thanks! I like your idea of setting up categories like your seasonal spending category. One question, where is the Goal feature in Mint? I actually didn't realize it had such a feature, and exploring around the UI hasn't revealed anything to me. There is a series of categories across the top (Overview, Transactions, Budget, Goals, Trends, Investments). It should be pretty obvious! Not sure if you are using a mobile device or something that might force you to scroll over to see it. Most of Mint happens in the overview/transactions/budget screens.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:48 |
|
Weird! All I see is Maybe it has something to do with me using Canadian banks? In any case, I'll contact Mint support and see what they have to say. Thanks again.
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 18:45 |
|
I just took a look on the Mint forums and apparently it is something that hasn't been implemented for Canadian users yet? I have no idea why that would be the case, very strange. You could try manually changing the URL once you are logged in? I have it as https://wwws.mint.com/goal.event; see if that works!
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 19:00 |
Ashcans posted:I just took a look on the Mint forums and apparently it is something that hasn't been implemented for Canadian users yet? I have no idea why that would be the case, very strange. Mint posted:Goal is not available Damnit! Sounds like a great feature, too.
|
|
# ? Jun 17, 2013 19:13 |
|
Two weeks ago, I started messing around with the YNAB demo, and it worked great for me - up until I was like "Eh gently caress it" and didn't track when I got $10 cash to buy a DLC game with my credit card for $7. That, combined one or two other minor hiccups has tossed me about $30 I can't match up with the amount on online banking, and it's driving me a little crazy. I really like YNAB, and have thoroughly learned my lesson to log everything, because I just spent my whole lunch hour trying to figure this out, and then setting up a brand new budget. Since I've only been using it two weeks is that the way to go in this case? Burn it down and start over?
|
# ? Jun 19, 2013 18:53 |
|
morcant posted:Two weeks ago, I started messing around with the YNAB demo, and it worked great for me - up until I was like "Eh gently caress it" and didn't track when I got $10 cash to buy a DLC game with my credit card for $7. That, combined one or two other minor hiccups has tossed me about $30 I can't match up with the amount on online banking, and it's driving me a little crazy. Yeah, burning it down and starting over is the best way to do it. My initial run through, I tried setting up my budget similar to how Mint is sset up - this screwed up the way YNAB is set up and I had to reset a few times.
|
# ? Jun 19, 2013 19:05 |
|
Reconcile! http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/how-to-reconcile
|
# ? Jun 19, 2013 20:04 |
|
|
# ? May 6, 2024 03:05 |
|
Yes, do this regularly so that when you find a discrepancy you aren't going back to the beginning of time (budget wise) to resolve it. Still, it can be a pain in the rear end because of differences on credit/debit cards between when the purchase was made, when it cleared, and which date the bank records as the transaction date.
|
# ? Jun 19, 2013 21:14 |