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Picked up YNAB when it was cheap to see what the fuss is all about. I read a bit of the founder's philosophy and watched the first video and decided their method was not for me. I currently calculate out what I want my budget to be very finely in Excel, then implement it into Mint in a much more general form to give me much more wiggle room per category. Since we have a large amount of cash on hand, I pretty much ignored the 'Available to Budget' line and just implemented my spreadsheet. In the end, I think it functions now as a streamlined version of my Excel with transaction recording capabilities. Works fine, not something I'd spend $50+ for. Briantist posted:What I did when I set up YNAB, was to instead set up my savings as an off-budget account, so that money is not available for me to budget anyway (I would have to transfer it into an on-budget account and record it as income then), but I haven't heard of anyone else doing it that way. I did the same thing, except for On Budget accounts I did set up an account for our Emergency Funds. I didn't enter in my accounts as they are, but merged accounts where it made sense and split out funds where it made sense. So entering in the Emergency Fund and other short term goal savings as a 'budgeted' expenditure makes it so that the 'Balance' part auto tracks it as if it was all separate accounts, which is nice. Knowing how much to budget per month for those categories is calculated in Excel. PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Of YNAB, I agree. The system seems better for people who are coming back from the brink or already in a really bad situation to get them to a normal state. Shadowhand00 posted:The other way to look at the way YNAB seems to be built is that its based off an agile way of looking at budgeting. Rather than planning and then executing your budget (waterfall), they're looking at making people be more agile in their budget (iterative and responding to needs as they arise). I'm not sure what this means. You're implying that being agile means that you don't plan and execute. Or that being 'waterfall' means you don't respond to needs as they arise and you don't engage in your finances or look over/adjust regularly. Neither is true.
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Jul 16, 2013 00:43
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Briantist posted:I have 2 perspectives to YNAB, because my girlfriend and I have our finances separate and we both use YNAB. I am doing well enough, not at the brink at all (I know this was Rurutia's phrase, not yours), and my girlfriend is building her own business while paying off student loans and other debt, so her budget is way more.. lean. In my view it's working well for both of us. Maybe I wasn't clear. YNAB as a software program works fine and as I said is just a more streamlined version of what I'd already done in Excel. I'll be using it since I paid $15 for it which I'm happy with. I don't think it was worth $50+ and it's the insistence on their specific methods that grates on me (hence responding to Phantom's comments about their Rules). The specific methodology do seem to work better for more 'lean' budgets if that wording suits your tastes better. I wasn't making any indictment on people who like YNAB or its methodology, the above is obviously all opinion. I'm pretty poor myself but saved a large cushion and live very frugally so their methods really didn't make sense to me (for instance, I can afford to just pay $500 for item X now and reap the benefits while paying myself back over Y time without jeopardizing my emergency fund, versus having the money slowly accumulate in my bank account and do nothing). In addition, I also manage the budget for the household where my fiance makes far far more than I do, so that might taint my view. But there's a few quirks in the software that has workarounds if you don't want to use their method but when you read on the forums about them, there's a bit of a snobby attitude in that they keep insisting that you should use their method and not use the workaround. I think people are talking past each other when some are referring to the specific methodology and usage they promote and some are referring to the software itself. My criticisms are largely on the former. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jul 18, 2013 |
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Jul 18, 2013 00:33
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Me in Reverse posted:Budgeting Practice question: I collect records, and sometimes sell them on eBay, etc. Would you budget that income as Income, or as an inflow in my Records category? Ok, is it just me, or does it really feel like most of the questions like this should be redirected? Only you can know what you want to consider it as. Do you use the funds from selling the records to reinvest in your collection or do you consider it income? As long as your budget balances, it doesn't matter. Do what makes the most sense to you and your life. Budgeting (YNAB) is a tool, fit the budget to your life, not the other way around.
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Aug 22, 2013 00:42
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bouncyman posted:I live in a 540 sqft studio bouncyman posted:Rent $1300  Is there someway for you to lower the rent without paying for it in space/quality of living or increasing your income? You certainly don't have a low income number wise, but it seems relatively awful for your area if that's normal.
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Sep 19, 2013 19:43
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HooKars posted:I don't know anyone who does this unless you're really trying to specifically change some particular habit, like your diet. I can't imagine doing this for each category each month. I do this in YNAB in a separate budget. It's not that arduous.
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Oct 8, 2013 22:31
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tuyop posted:I may just be weird but I also do this as a cost/calorie or gram of protein field as well. What's your ranking by protein? I haven't done it that way because it's pretty much guaranteed that chicken will win any day. (69c/lb versus 3/lb for beef and 7/lb for seafood)
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Oct 8, 2013 23:35
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I use YNAB but I also agree with PoC that it gets trotted out as a cure-all in lieu of actual discussion and targeted advice on budgeting which implies that their methodology should also be recommended in general. I think all of the topics he pointed out make for a far more interesting thread than it has been in a long time. In addition, I haven't felt that he was being a dictator in how he ran the thread, he never disallowed it so much as disagreed with the posters who did advocate for it so often. As for the methods, interestingly, I use percentage allocation for Savings vs Expenses, then Pareto for how the Expenses get broken down. It makes the most sense to us because we make enough and our wants are small enough (in that I come from a poor rear end family) that we would never really live outside of means. Thus, the main goal becomes figuring out a percentage savings to allow us to retire early as well as live life to the fullest (including traveling across the continent for a month per year).
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Feb 16, 2014 00:03
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I need a fresh set of eyes on my budget. I've been staring at it for 2 days and not sure if I'm happy with it. We're trying to balance
Anyways, savings wise we have no debt, about $300k in liquid assets and about $150k of that is accessible in non-taxed accounts. This is one of the many reasons, we don't have a huge emergency fund, and we're not aiming for one. Currently, I have it set up so that we're saving $46,872.45 per year (post tax dollars) and our monthly budget is $4774.05. code:-Housekeeping isn't really negotiable. We both work a ton, and while we keep the house in relative order, the maids really help us keep it in tip top shape. -Weekly Date budget is for events we do together just for the two of us. For example, we went hang gliding yesterday. -We usually only spend $300/month for food. -Car isn't counted as debt because it's actually paid off. We're just refilling that 'pot' we took the money out from (don't worry it wasn't a retirement account). Rurutia fucked around with this message at 22:01 on May 4, 2014 |
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May 4, 2014 21:50
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Third stage, and I seriously hesitate to post this, but why not... You don't say how much money you have already saved for each of your discretionary items, but even if you were starting from flat zero you have targets that are far enough in the future that you can ensure all the money is there at the appropriate time. Loan yourself two months of vacation money to buy the BGE, and then pay back the loan over the next sixteen months This is probably what I will do. It doesn't really make sense to save for two things over a year and a half instead of funding one first then the other. Thanks for the look and advice. I didn't expect anyone to actually read through everything since it is a bit of a pain. It was really helpful to look at the discretionary recategorized and in %'s. Not sure you care, but the BiAnnual Trip is pretty much a must at $7k. My fiance's parents actually live on a remote island near Europe, so $5.5k is just the flight there and back. The timeline is such that we're taking it at the cheapest time of the year. We used to go every year, but we're figuring out that it's just not tenable especially when we have kids... We also agreed that it makes sense to see more of the world since we're flying there anyways. So we moved the budget up for it and spaced it out more. tuyop posted:What is a BGE? Is he saving for almost a year and a half to buy Baldurs Gate? A Big Green Egg.
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May 7, 2014 14:47
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Depends on where you're shopping. If you do all your shopping at Whole Foods or Pike Place, I can see it (especially if you keep buying the off season stuff). But, the key thing with grocery shopping is to buy on season and on sale, and fit your meal plan with what you buy not the other way around.
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Jul 10, 2014 17:59
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Moving on to the discussion question, then: How are you (everyone in the thread) storing/allocating your emergency savings? If you have a single line item for emergency savings, under what circumstances has the balance gone down? Have you misused the money? For those saving within each category independently, are you meeting your savings goals? A single line for emergency savings. We only used it for our dog getting sick unexpectedly and for our AC going kaput. So, I'd say no.
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Jul 13, 2014 02:54
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Sooo this might be a bit preemptive, but how do people deal with being absolute gods of budgeting, where a budget is so solid that you have no worries about paying bills for three-to-six months, have emergency funds covered, have instant data about maximum available play money, and.... don't have to enter receipts but once every two months, can record payroll 45 days after you get it, and finally start to wonder if some of your money could do more work for you somehow? Be better at budgeting because you're not putting enough into savings.
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Apr 1, 2015 00:33
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Mad Wack posted:Are people actually using YNAB still with their cloud move? I'm really disappointed with the change. I'm using nYNAB, I'm lazy as gently caress and our finances are pretty solid so it's fine for us.
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Feb 22, 2016 00:36
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I'm surprised at the $800 in utilities, esp if your mortgage is only $1800. I think $1400 for food is ridiculous, and it looks like you guys are spending like you make $$$$ when you really only make $$ once you take all the debt into consideration. I'd consider not getting that car that is the projected one for sure until your pay off your debt/MBA tuition.
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Sep 27, 2016 21:40
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:A lot of the spending on food is convenience based - we work terrible hours and so eat out a lot because we can't be assed. The $800 for utilities was just a guess, I've never been a homeowner before. Meal plan better. Cook in bulk when you have time, then eat from that when you don't have the time. I get the eating for convenience, my husband has the same, but for now you guys need to choose your poison. Choose either your ridiculous MBA tuition or your ridiculous food spending or your ridiculous car. You need to make a sacrifice somewhere, making more means less not no sacrifices. At your income, you should be saving far more than you are. You will not be able to remotely maintain your current lifestyle by only maxing out your 401k/Roth. EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:(Our new car is literally $1350, it makes me sick to think about that decision, having read some personal finance literature in the intervening weeks). I really enjoy it, and it's for my wife and the baby, but still. $1350/month worth of car is not necessary for your wife or baby. That's not why you bought that much car, it's because you enjoy it. Don't excuse it as anything less than a luxury expense. And again, you need to pick and choose what luxuries you get, because you can't get them all.
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Sep 27, 2016 22:17
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Anyone feel low posting they're upper middle/lower upper class budget for family with 2 kids and a house in sf? I'm looking at what things would cost and it's pretty insane. 6k for the mortgage and 3k for the day care right now.
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May 11, 2017 17:54
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