How to Create a Budget

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I think Mint is pretty awesome. YNAB is great for making sure that I just spend what I make, but doesn't care about balances or anything.

Mint has a great system of notifications so that I don't have to worry about automatic CC payments or whatever. It's also awesome for capturing expenses.

For instance, a significant amount of my expenses come out of one cashback credit card which is fully paid of automatically. Before the auto pay comes out of my chequing, Mint sends me an email and is just like "hey yo your balance isn't so hot" and I can fix it. It's nice and automatic.

As for time spent, I probably spend an hour or two a month just because our finances have been complicated the last couple of months with a big move and a wedding and all sorts of car maintenance stuff coming up.

# ¿ May 16, 2013 10:54

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:59

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

kripes posted:

Seems to me that MINT would be a hacker's dream.

Why? It's not like you can change anything or send any money in Mint, it's just a portal to view your accounts all in one place.

# ¿ May 30, 2013 20:48

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Shadowhand00 posted:

Yeah, it seems to be the chief complaint about YNAB - manually entering in all of the data. Personally, I like the process of manually entering all of my transactions. It keeps me extremely aware of where my money is going. I do the reconciliation where I import my bank transactions via .qfx files, so I'm able to make sure I get everything in. Outside of a small $.40 discrepancy, I've had no issues though personally. I know people are different and some people do find this extremely annoying.

I've lost transactions before on YNAB and spent entirely too much time trying to "find" them, but it just came down to reconciling with the actual balance and moving on. I love it.

Also, don't get me started on the bitchiness that is maintaining a cash account. I think I should really just count all cash as an expense in categories and move on. But then I don't track every cent!

# ¿ May 31, 2013 10:27

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

This is why cash isn't real to me, and why I've always been terribly responsible with credit cards, but cash is pretty much lost the moment it's converted from something electronic. Oh, I can track mils in my database and record thousandths-of-a-percent monthly savings for some of my long term goals, but give me a wad of and it's as good as gone. I guess I'm not enough of a to carry a ledger around with me. Luca Pacioli would not be proud.

It'd be find if I still had a smartphone to record this poo poo on the fly, or if both my partner and I were super anal about recording that $1.27 gas station coffee, but we're not, so it's best not to even bother. I still enter it when I remember, just for the data and tracking, but it'll never reconcile to the cent.

# ¿ May 31, 2013 15:59

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

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

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

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

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

There is a rather lengthy conversation about giving back to the public and the state, in the sense that property should contain trees, grass, crops, and so forth, as can be reasonably planted and tended, both for the pleasing appearance and to provide food in times of need, for example. (Random thought: Large plots of grass, within city limits but on personal property, may be reasonable donations for a community garden. We have these in this city. I don't know how they came to be, who paid/pays for them, or what the tax advantages might be.) There are also pages explaining how gardening (husbandry) is worthy of study, because it not only teaches you how to grow things, but how to learn, how to pay attention, adhere to a schedule, exercise care and maintenance, and so forth. The same could be said to apply to raising stock, rearing horses, etc.

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

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

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

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

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

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

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.

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!

Mint posted:

Goal is not available
in Canada at this time.

Damnit! Sounds like a great feature, too.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2013 19:13

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

signalnoise posted:

To be clearer it's about 2500 bucks of CC debt (significant to me anyway) and APR is 9%. I take home maybe 2300 a month after taxes, medical insurance etc.. My students loans I have to pay like 550 a month and car is 200. If I lived ridiculously lean I could probably kill the CC debt in a short period of time but I'm apparently loving terrible with money.

Just pay it off. It'll expose you to a tiny amount of risk while you rebuild the cash buffer because you'll be relying on credit cards in emergencies, but whatever.

Someone is going to say that the CC companies can shut down your account or reduce your available credit AT ANY TIME :supaburn:

But we're talking about $2500 here.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 12:55

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

The other thing I'll point out, with which you need be a bit careful regarding the numbers, is that even an 8% student loan rate is generally going to be significantly better than any credit card you ever get. Ergo, you can "loan yourself money" at 8% interest by not paying double on the student loan each month, for example, and using it for automotive maintenance, home repair, etcetera. My highest-interest student loan is going to be done in September; after that, I'm reluctant to just throw all the money on the lower-interest loan because... 2.6% and I need to build up my Roth and repair some things on my Jeep (the toys go in a different category) and visit a doctor and... I'd rather take that at 2.6% effective interest than charging it on some stupid credit card.

To follow the 'simple numbers' approach, if I have a minimum $100/mo payment, but actually have $200/mo that I can put toward it, do I use that spare $100 for that purpose or something else? If I need my exhaust manifold welded for $400-500, I can save my $100 for five months in my savings account, make my 0.75% stupid interest and be charged 2.6% for not paying off my loan. (Math is hard, it's about -1.85% per year.) Or I could pay extra on my loan for those five months, gain my 2.6% by lowering my interest amount, but then maybe get stuck with a broken exhaust manifold repair on a credit card at 16% (math hard about -13.4% per year) and where am I gonna get the money to pay that?... I'll probably decide after the repair to pilfer the extra $100/mo to pay off the credit card.

It wasn't simple. Also, there's compounding and loan lifetime hiding in here.

Pay off loans, attacking the highest interest rates first, but not at the expense of having no money and carrying a credit card balance.

Basically, if you don't have a spending problem and need to put an obstacle in between you and your savings so that you don't spend the money on geegaws or whatever, then the account doesn't matter.

I feel kind of stupid for doing this myself. I have about 16k sitting in accounts bearing like a promotional interest rate until July of 2.6%. After that it's 1.stupid%. I'm saving this because my employment situation is precarious for the next month and I'm worried about my income and tuition.

On the other hand, I've got like 30k in debt with an average of 3% APR. I haven't put the cash on the debt because both debts are locked up (a secured car loan and private cosigned student line of credit). It feels stupid because it's costing me like $25 a month in interest difference, but the alternative is using an 8% line of credit for the future if my income situation goes worst-case. If the debt was usable, like if it was a line of credit itself, then I would have dumped all the savings on it right away.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2013 14:14

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

drat Bananas posted:

Very nitpicky question, but I'm curious how other people categorize this. I'm making a spreadsheet of how much I have spent where, and I have both a category for "eating out" (restaurants, going out for drinks) as well as "entertainment" (sporting events, movies). If I bought concessions at the movies/sporting event, would it make more sense to count it as eating out or entertainment? Or should it depend if it replaced a meal or was just a snack/drink? Or do most people just lump eating out and entertainment into one category anyway?

What's the difference in your mind between the types of entertainment? Is there value in separating the categories?

I have an entertainment category divided into:

His (stuff I buy)
Hers (stuff she buys, mostly cigarettes)
Us (restaurants/movies/whatever)
Sports (like, creatine or a skipping rope would go here, for instance)

And I have a food budget for groceries.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2013 15:37

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Well it's all discretionary spending. The important thing is to be conscious about your discretionary spending. If your entertainment events are a thing you value enough to spend 3, 12, 30, whatever hours per month on, then awesome. If your eating out spending is a thing you just do compulsively and brings you little extra happiness but costs you hours of your life in terms of income, then you should stop that.

That would be a good reason to separate the categories, in my opinion. I can say that cooking brings me a lot of joy relative to the 7% of my income that it costs to splurge on amazing ingredients, but driving does not offer me an amount of joy comparable to the 20% of my income that it costs, so I separate the categories (both discretionary, to some extent) to evaluate how my money can best produce joy in my life.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2013 16:13

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

It is impossible to overthink these things, I'm convinced. When you have a double-entry system for expenses coupled with your double-entry system for caloric intake, then we'll talk.

I may have a problem. I track calories, dollars, exercises (weightlifting poundage and split/distance times for swimming, running, and cycling), gas mileage, and work tasks when I have an actual job.

Then every week or so I do a pareto analysis on this stuff to try to eke more happiness out of my obsessive metrics.

I also have to do all of this without a smartphone so people are always asking me why I'm staring at a muffin or something. "How many calories do you think this muffin has?"

# ¿ Jun 30, 2013 13:38

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Oh, yeah, if you haven't heard, YNAB is on sale for a little while. I still don't work for them, but I really love their program. :worship:

# ¿ Jul 12, 2013 11:39

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

DogsCantBudget posted:

So I'm trying to YNAB, and actually am not quite following their system in July. Mainly cuz I started after most of(if not nearly all) of my bills were paid, and my budget just looked wonky as gently caress when I did it. I ended up at negative 2k for this month, but also know that my wife is getting a 2k paycheck by the end of this week which when I put it in will end up zeroing out. Next month, after I get my first check, I expect to be zero'd out completely, but if you look at my YNAB(which I copied forward for basically the next 12 months), YNAB says that by next August I will be at -114k! Thats right, negative. Instead of saying "well it looks like you spend 114k over the next year on your expenses", it says "looks like you'll be 114k behind as of next year". I wish I could somehow tell it my estimated monthly earnings so that can be taken into account

First, budget the money you have, not the money you will get. Of course you'll be -114k next August, you're planning on spending money that you don't have yet.

Or if you want to do it a totally different way that isn't really following the YNAB method, click on your categories and make the arrow point like this ->

What I mean:

Versus

The whole point is not to do your budget a year in advance because your life will change and you need to roll with the punches. Sure you know your rent, but, yeah, you know your rent. Why do you have to enter it 12 months in advance?

# ¿ Jul 15, 2013 19:46

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

DogsCantBudget posted:

Yea, but it seems I know *MOST* of my expenses. I think for me using YNAB to be able to say well, this month you planned to spend 500$ on restaurants. It's 7/15 and you've spent 400, slow your role and start going to the drat grocery store you idiot. It seems I have 7500$ of monthly expenses.

Of those roughly 4500 are unavoidable expenses(debts like car payments/student loans, rent, food, etc) another 3000 in avoidables/things I'm trying to save. and then 2500 a month which should be "extra money" which can go more into savings, but I want to "really see" what I have next month

God why isn't "debt" recorded as Pre-YNAB Debt? :psyduck:

This way its balance is just going to go up forever, messing up all of your balances.

To answer your question, it's ~~not~~ shouldn't be a big deal to spend twelve minutes doing your budgeting on your paydays. You can even click the little thunderbolt in the top right-hand corner of the "Available to Budget" window for a bunch of shortcuts. Once you get to having a full buffer and living on last month's income, then it's even faster.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2013 20:50

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

DogsCantBudget posted:

How can I convert it? And if so, do I set it as a negative balance(with the loan amount?)

You change the account from off-budget to on-budget.

It's really a case of "Do Whatever" anyway, it would just bug me to have a huge balance in "debt" as a line.

The way you're doing it makes it easier to figure in interest charges. If you keep your debt on-budget, you can record interest charges as Pre-YNAB Debt itself, and it'll be reflected in the balance of your payments*, or you can do off-budget and have a separate line for interest charges. Whatever.

* Make a $150 payment, pay $10 in interest, see a payment of $140 in your debt's line.

Edit: Actually, you can do away with the balance by recording your debt payment transfer (from checking to an off-budget account) as an expenditure in the debt category rather than a transfer with no category. This is how I handle my car payment.

tuyop fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jul 15, 2013

# ¿ Jul 15, 2013 21:14

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Tomahawk posted:

I just purchased YNAB and maybe I haven't delved into it hard enough but I'm failing to see what advantages this has over the excel spreadsheet I had been keeping for my budget. I'm just a little underwhelmed so far. Maybe it starts to show its usefulness in the second month?

If your excel spreadsheet can keep line amounts and selectively pull excess balances from the available to budget for next month or carry that amount forward within that line with the click of a button, then you're way better at excel than me.

But yeah, it's basically just a pretty shell for a well-designed spreadsheet with cloud syncing, mobile apps, hotkeys, and a slick interface designed from the ground up around an effective methodology.

The advantage for me was the shift from account spending to category spending. It's possible to get that from excel, but it never clicked for me before YNAB. Worth it.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2013 02:06

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I think you can do both? Be flexible in your budgeting and save for irregular expenses. The former should really be how you handle your discretionary spending, I think.

In YNAB, I use a note in the line to help me:

Now I know that I need to put 193 in my car insurance line every month, which is my monthly premium plus what I estimate the total premium to cost next year*, divided by twelve. Yes I pay a lot of car insurance.

And I'm driving 4400km this month so my gas bill is insane, before anyone mentions it.

If for some reason I make less this month, I can always just forgo that extra bit in that line and pay only the bill, or I can just cut spending in discretionary areas.

If I come into a bunch of money and choose to do away with funding that line for the next twelve months, I can also just dump like 1200 bucks into it and not worry about it I guess. Flexibility!

_{* I'm not actually doing that right now, but for completely different reasons.}

# ¿ Jul 17, 2013 23:18

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I'm pretty sure his point was that, from the day that he bought the gold, to the day that the gold was actually paid for by someone, 80 days have passed. So somehow, for that 80 days, your net worth should be staying at, say $1000 (you just transfered 1k in cash to 1k in gold), but since the cash is taking 80 days to change hands, for that 80 days you actually have 1k in cash and 1k in gold.

It's that whole cash float concept right?

http://www.theinvestor.tv/money/PlayingTheFloat.htm

# ¿ Jul 18, 2013 17:12

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

Does anybody know of a program or website like this? The optimal scenario is to be able to just whip a phone out and add it right there on the spot after each purchase, and have it track who owes whom and how much.

Maybe try splitwise? It was featured in lifehacker awhile ago.

That or like a google spreadsheet?

# ¿ Jul 18, 2013 19:54

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Man, you are very sophisticated in your budgeting. :psyboom:

# ¿ Jul 19, 2013 12:49

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I really love that your money is tracked to the thousandth, Phantom.

Dantu posted:

This is probably a very basic accounting question, but here it goes. I'm using an Excel spreadsheet to track my budget. I've started using two of my credit cards to churn points in certain categories. I was paying the cards off almost weekly through my bank but it was making me confused about where to track the money. Am I better off just paying the credit cards on the due date, for whatever the statement balance is and tracking the purchases under the category as I spend? Seems like if I do it right, my gas + groceries for one month should equal my Amex bill the next month?

Yeah you could treat your CCs as accounts, budget the money based on category, and then move the money when your statements are due. The money movement does not count in your budget because it's not spending, the spending occurs when you buy the thing with the CC. Record the spending.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 16:30

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

Mills and budgeting percentages have five places after the decimal.

Assuming you have a grace period, Pay On a Schedule. If you continue to send money at random times, not only are you giving away money that could be earning interest, but you'll end up forgetting for a few weeks and then you'll get hit with all sorts of penalties.

Keep two accounts in your spreadsheet that are used to pay the two cards. When you make a purchase on a card, record the transaction and move the money from the appropriate category (Food, fuel, etc.), into the CC payment account. In this way, when the bill comes, you will always have more in the CC payment account then the amount billed on the monthly statement, and you won't use that money for other purchases since your spreadsheet has it isolated for those payments.

Alternatively, set up automatic payments with your CC company for the full statement balance from your chequing or whatever. Spend freely within your budget, leave your money where it lies (your chequing). It will all get taken care of by computers and you'll never pay an extra fee. I mean, as long as you never spend money that you don't have.

That's a good spreadsheet method to keep track of it, though.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 20:25

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

Hey, so in YNAB, I just entered in all my cash stuff for the month since it's payday. Each payday I'm going to withdraw cash for different categories like groceries, gas, etc. and then I just want to enter the full amount I withdraw in YNAB so that I don't have to enter in 9 billion cash transactions during the month.

So I just did that along with items I'm transferring to savings. Now it says I'm like $1500 over budget. Huh? How do I fix this? I entered everything as outflows...was this wrong? And none of what I entered is showing on the main budget screen either.

Uh, you need to budget your categories out in the budget screen, and then record your spending in the accounts screen (AKA the "register"). The spending in the accounts makes up your outflows, and the outflows subtract from your budgeted amounts to make the balance.

Also, this is a strange way to use YNAB. Just saying.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2013 15:49

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

...I don't understand what's strange? If I budget 200 for groceries per month, and I pull out 200 cash on the first for groceries, why can't I just enter in I spent $200? I'd rather do that than enter in $186.55, then $4.00 for milk a week later? Why does it matter if ultimately I'm going to spend all $200?

I did do the budget screen, I just didn't know why it put me over budget when on the account screen I entered it all in.

It's just not typical use. Typical use is to enter each transaction rather than some kind of envelope. If you can meet your financial goals doing it this way then it sounds excellent as a no-stress alternative to puzzling over CC transactions every Thursday.

I'm not really sure why it would put you over budget unless you took out more cash in some categories than you budgeted, resulting in a negative balance in some categories.

Like, if you did:

200 in groceries
220 in gas
70 in booze

And then recorded outflows (cash withdrawals in your case) as:

100 groceries
120 gas
80 in booze

Then you're going to be overbudget $10 even though you have tons of money left, because that's how the whole category system works.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2013 17:24

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

Another question about debt payoff. My husband bought an iMac before he even knew I existed. He financed it through Pioneer Military Lending (ugh--they are horribly predatory) and on his paperwork for it, the interest rate is 18%. He set up an allotment on MyPay to pay them, so we've never like, "made a payment" in a sense that the money was already gone from his check. However now that I set up YNAB I asked him if I could look at the paperwork for it last night. His monthly payment on the computer loan is $147 per month! So I'm thinking that is what we should kill first because a) it is the biggest monthly payment we have, b) the interest rate is the worst out of all our debt, c) there's still 15 months left until payoff on it (with a remaining balance of $1,998), and just ugh. If we kill off this one, that $147 will make a significant difference in paying off the others. So would it be a good idea to pay it off first?

Here is our other bills:

Credit Card #1: $506 (will be paid off Sept. 1 from income) - 15.99% APR
Student Loan: $1762.03 - 6.8% interest
Credit Card #2: $4,285 - 12.99% interest

I have checks coming in the mail in the next 6-8 weeks from accounts I closed that were out of state, for about $700 and $2500, respectively, which I'd like to throw at any of the above.

Depends on the approach you take. The mathematically correct approach is to pay off your highest interest rate debt first. Others recommend tackling the lowest balance debt first.

Some people find the whole motivational aspect of paying off the low-balance debts to be worth the often-negligible difference in interest expenses. But yes, either way you should pay off that iMac. I too financed a computer (from Dell) and kind of forgot about the $33/month payment until I'd spent something like $400 more on the computer than it was worth.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 15:48

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Yeah you should really watch the videos and maybe go through a webinar if you want YNAB to work for you. I recommend the credit card webinar because that poo poo can be confusing.

However, pen and paper and cash envelopes is a good start and you can totally achieve your goals that way.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 17:51

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

I feel a bit self-conscious over what's in our budget now that I actually publicly posted it.

Hey man, your money is your money. We have a "sports" category that we spend on whey protein and snake oil and a "spontaneity" category with like 100 bucks in it for when we want to go on little road trips or something.

Edit: And I'm like the laughing stock of BFC going on three years now, so consider that!

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 19:25

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

OK, so I played with YNAB yet again, and started completely over with a blank budget on it. This time I did something differently. My husband gets paid on the first and 15th each month. I only get paid on the first. So this time, I only entered what we have gotten paid for the first, rather than the whole month. I filled in everything that is getting paid the first half of the month, which seems to have worked a lot better. Then come the 15th, I'll put his other check as an inflow and fill in the rest. Yes, it means I'll have to do this twice each month, but then at least whenever I look at it, I'm only looking at money we actually have instead of hoping what I put for his mid-month check is accurate. Usually it's the same as what we get on the first, but sometimes it isn't, like if he gets a clothing allowance tacked on or something.

Also, rather than put $450 for groceries, I put $220 (since that's what I withdrew from the ATM) and then on the 15th I will change it to $450 and withdraw the rest...if I don't use it I'll adjust it to whatever category I move it to instead, which will probably be paying extra on debt.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this now. I read some of their forum posts, and those people were saying don't use it like Quicken with projected numbers; rather, only use what you have right this second. That kinda made things click for me.

I think you're getting the hang of it. As your starting numbers you shouldn't even worry about when you got or get paid, just enter your balances now, like the amount that's in your account today, and use that to populate your categories. This may lead to a lot of blank lines, that's alright. When you get paid, you can fund more lines as per your goals.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2013 21:27

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Yeah that's the main thing, only budget money you have.

I'm chomping at the bit to get paid tomorrow so I can budget more, I look forward to it so much you guys. I love when I find some money or a friend pays me to help out with something because then I can budget more.

I really like the way we were doing the "live on last month's income" thing. We have a "Buffer" line, put it at zero every month, which dumps about 2600 into the budget, parcel it out, and then fill it again every pay. It's strangely satisfying but I don't think I'll do it forever because there doesn't seem to be much point once you get the picture.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2013 21:32

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

HooKars posted:

These posts on YNAB confuse the hell out of me. So if my rent is the entirety of my first paycheck, am I just "in debt" for everything else I buy for those two weeks? Or am I perfectly a-okay because I have a plenty of money in savings that is not my emergency fund so you know... i can spend what I have? If I just spent what I had, there'd be no real budget because what I have is far greater than my monthly salary.

What you have is categorized as whatever you've saved it for. If it's not categorized that way, then it's categorized for some other spending like annual insurance or something.

Basically, if you start YNAB on the 2nd with $12 in your account after you paid your $1200 rent on the first with your $1212 paycheque (or whatever), then yes, you are borrowing money from your future self using a credit card or something. Your categories will reflect that with negative balances. That's basically reality.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2013 05:29

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

OK, so I've mentioned earlier about my husband's iMac loan. The balance is now down to $1850. I plan on putting $400/month extra on it starting next month, but there's also a $147 payment that comes directly out of his check for it. Since we don't see the check allotment, how would I account for that on YNAB? If I only enter $400 as the payment, then the decrease to $1450 would be incorrect, but if I include the $147 tacked onto the $400, it will put us over budget by $147 every time. Could I just enter the $147 payment in under the iMac account as an inflow to make it right? I wouldn't have to put down where the inflow comes from, right?

You could just add 147 to his pay and treat it like a CC payment.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2013 02:01

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

Welp, last night my husband managed to lose my debit card that is linked to all our bills. Fantastic. Thankfully, nothing else comes out until the 15th, and I should get my new card by then, but I'm super annoyed because now I have to change debit card info on literally everything. We bank with USAA, but I also have a local credit union account where I can deposit a check to get through until the new card comes. And I can transfer funds between the main USAA account and my husband's account too, in a pinch.

I'm almost considering going old school and getting bills in the mail and sending a check for each one, rather than emailed statements and online bill pay, so that I don't have to worry about hiccups like this if a debit card gets lost.

Have you considered automating your finances online, like, through your bank's bill payment client thingy? For variable bills, we have them set up using blank cheques for automatic withdrawals. The bank card number may change, but our transit and account numbers don't. I spend like four minutes a month making sure the estatement is accurate and won't destroy our account balance and then forget about it.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2013 21:58

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Me in Reverse posted:

For all you people using the Pre-YNAB Debt feature, how do you handle accumulating interest?

I've done two things:

1. Have an "interest" line in my budget and categorize interest charges as outflows. This was nice because I could see how much of my money as a percentage was going to interest payments.

2. Categorize it as Pre-YNAB Debt (I write "interest" in the memo still). It'll just subtract itself from your budgeted amount to give you a new total. I like this one because the Pre-YNAB Debt line balance will line up with the account balance.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2013 14:18

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

SiGmA_X posted:

Morning folks. For those of you use who Excel to track your budget, do you guys have a good template to start with? I'm very curious.

I currently use Excel to make my budget (that I barely stick to because I'm poor, unemployed, and a student! Is that enough excuse?!) and Quicken to track my expenses, and export a report to Excel to compare the two to every now and then. I really like how Quicken & I track my expenditures, but I think Quicken budgeting sucks horridly. Once things stabilize for me income wise a bit, I am going to try to use Quickens budget tools in earnest, and next time YNAB goes on sale I will get a copy to try it. I don't think trying it right now would give me a full picture of what it can/can't do, but I think it will be worth using in a month or two.

I kind of like what I'm seeing from Phantom which I gather is Excel generated. Mill and 5 decimals for fractions? That's some precision right there. So, how exactly are you going about tracking it in Excel?

Thanks!

If mint.com is available in your country, it sounds like it would be even better for your... approach.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 15:36

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

So phantom, just to clarify, do you actually have like eight different chequing and savings accounts at your bank or various banks?

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 05:57

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:59

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Combat Pretzel posted:

Might just want to keep a buffer category for the sake of it, as secondary buffer to smooth out bigger variations in pay. I have a buffer category filled with around a 1000 bux to smooth out irregularities around the summer vacation period and X-mas.

Yeah our "buffer" category tends to end up as rolling with the punches money as well.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 18:33

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget

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