YNAB

[a_hardie]

@shuffler

I’d be concerned if you deleted the “Car Insurance” category and didn’t regularly assign money towards paying that bill.

Oh I’m not saying I would delete car insurance or not pay it. I guess I was just using it as an example of how there are sooooo many categories.

[a_hardie]

@BiblioFeroz

I don’t have enough money to budget a whole month at once, much less have sinking funds.

Yeah I think this is where I am. Helpful to hear this from another person.

[a_hardie]

thanks for outlining all this! Theoretically I know how it all works, but it’s a mindset that I’m just not used to yet.
Also complicating this is that I’m only tracking/allocating my own bank account, and my partner has his own that’s not part of YNAB. And truthfully I’m not the only one in charge of a lot of the expenses that I say I am in YNAB.

[BiblioFeroz]

It doesn’t feel great but I take comfort in the age of money stat!

[LadyElizabeth]

@a_hardie

I think it’s because I am encouraged to have all these categories that I don’t spend from very often–think “emergency fund” or “car insurance,” and I can’t actually afford to fund those every month and take care of our daily expenses. When I set it up I made a LOT of categories.

I am in the same situation. I don’t have enough money to fund every single category every month. I tried to have less categories, but I prefer the granularity. So what I do is , everytime I get paid I allocate money to my monthly bills and stuff like groceries, etc and annual bills that I fill 1/12th of the amount every month. I also have a set amount of fun money . Anything that is left goes in a general « cash savings » category that is intended for true expenses.

My goal is to top the « cash savings » category to a certain amount, than my leftover money will fund my emergency fund, and then any investment goal that I have. But when true expenses will occur, I will pull from the cash savings category and fund the true expenses that needs attention.

Let me know if it’s not clear!

[letired]

@a_hardie

I’m not the only one in charge of a lot of the expenses that I say I am in YNAB.

If you are not responsible for a given category/it doesn’t come out of your pot of money, it might make sense to rethink how you are handling those categories.

People more familiar with the new YNAB tricks can maybe give better suggestions, but if you still want to track these things, but they aren’t your responsibility and don’t come out of your accounts, you could set up a separate “income” or “partners money” type that flows in and immediately out when those expenses are made. I’m not sure what the most graceful way to handle that is besides actually connecting (or manually tracking) the other account. But the ynab style of budgeting (or even tracking) is hard when you don’t give it the full picture!

[a_hardie]

@LadyElizabeth

when true expenses will occur, I will pull from the cash savings category and fund the true expenses that needs attention

This makes sense–thank you!

[a_hardie]

@letired

But the ynab style of budgeting (or even tracking) is hard when you don’t give it the full picture!

I am finding that! I may need to rethink whether it’s worth it because my partner will likely never get on board with using it alongside me lol

[Clare-Dragonfly]

If you have visibility on his accounts, he doesn’t have to get on board!

I’ve noticed that in the recent YNAB channel videos (yes, I watch them because I’m a nerd and Hannah is a delight) they talk about your “spending plan” rather than “budget.” I wonder if thinking of it that way would be helpful for you.

[a_hardie]

@Clare-Dragonfly

If you have visibility on his accounts

I wish!

And I watch those too sometimes! thanks, it is probably a helpful reframe.