So I’ve Heard A Lot About YNAB (aka You Need A Budget)
YNAB stands for You Need A Budget and it’s a seriously HAWT software program.
I mean No Credit Needed uses it – that’s pretty much all I need when it comes to testimonials.
The sticking point for me is that I’m cheap as hell unabashedly thrifty and have been rocking my little one page excel spreadsheet for almost a year now. There are some things lacking in a static excel budget that I think YNAB would help me power through, and I love the concept of living on last month’s income. If I tried to live on last month’s income now there would be a moment next month, around the 10th, that I just saw this glut of money in my checking account.
I’d have a panic attack.
Right now, what is left over at the end of the month goes into the bank savings and once that hits $1k it goes over into the ING Direct savings. Yes, we have a couple of outstanding debts, but we plan on revisiting those once we get our tax return to decide how we want to handle them. (It’s difficult to pay a debt collector that calls, harasses you for a phone payment, laughs at you when you request a settlement offer in writing and then doesn’t call again for six months.)
I think we could get to a point where we are living on last month’s income very quickly once we are done paying the midwife (May is the last $1000 payment and then it’s just $200 plus incidentals and a birthing class) and will have completed making the extra payment on the mortgage this month (I never have the mortgage money by the 10th so end up paying a $50+ late fee every month. That late fee makes me really angry every month and paying an extra payment means I can pay my mortgage any-darn-time I feel like it during the month and it won’t be late.) But if I were using YNAB and the Four Steps … it wouldn’t be late anyway. So, should that money reside in my checking account or at Citibank in my mortgage account?
Probably no difference either way, really. But maybe there is and I’m missing it.
So…do I spend the $49.95 (before the 10% discount code) on the system or do I sign up for the 60-day free trial to see if I really need it…or do I pretend I never heard of it and keep my money in my checking account?
Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if I’m being thrifty and smart or cheap to the extreme.
It probably depends on who you ask.
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21 Responses to “So I’ve Heard A Lot About YNAB (aka You Need A Budget)”
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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
A client of mine uses YNAB and, honestly, I’m not impressed. For $50 I’d use the excel spreadsheet. It could be just my experience with one individual but the program has some problems that we haven’t been able to fix (aka not balancing). But, I’m also cheap so I say go with free.
Hey Lanel,
I run YNAB and am curious about your client’s predicament. Mine balances every time. I’d go insane if it didn’t! Ping us and let’s figure it out.
I started using YNAB about 5 months ago. I (read: my stingy husband) was a bit concerned about the price-tag, but we have never looked back! It has saved us so much money and headaches. My husband and I thought we were pretty thrifty/frugal–we track every penny we spend–but the YNAB system and principles helped us kick it up a notch. It easily paid for itself in the first month. Try the free trial–you have nothing to lose!
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I tend to do this thing where I sign up for something that seems handy, use it for a day or maybe a week, and then forget all about it. I think very few applications that are supposed to help me manage my business have actually ever made their way into my daily routine. That said, if there’s a 60 day free trial and you think you might like it, you don’t have anything to lose but a little all important time.
Hah! How was that for ambivalent? In fact, I’m heading over to the site to check YNAB out myself right now.
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Buy it, then ditch it in 60 days if you don’t love it…but you’ll love it. I’ve been using it for 2 years now. The program will balance, if things are entered correctly. I find it really fun, and love to tell my friends and family about it. If you’re considering it at all, you should give it a shot, you’ll never know unless you try. If you’re still hesitant, watch some of the tutorials online to see if the concept makes sense and if you think you’ll be willing to keep up with it. Good luck in finance world, whatever you decide!
I think is by far the best personal finance software available currently. I have paid for copies of Microsoft Money Plus, Quicken Premier 2009, MoneyDance 2008, Crown Money Map, Fortura Fresh Finance, BudgetExpress 3, YNAB Pro 2.8.0.2 and I have the free software gnuCash-2.2.9. I am trying to keep up all my transactions current in Quicken, MoneyDance, gnuCash, and YNAB. YNAB’s most important distinctive is that it actually plans ahead as well as recording and reporting past activity. YNAB makes planning the emphasis instead of documenting your financial foolishness. You could probably build a spreadsheet that would do what YNAB does if you are a spreadsheet guru with lots of time to spend on development and testing. But YNAB has it done what is needed simply and elegantly so reward the developer for the excellent and outstanding work and cough up the $50.00 I know that you will have a lot more time to develop relationships, no amount of money can buy a relationship. You spell love T I M E.
Jennifer:
If you breakdown and buy please advise where you got the discount code!!! I have not been able to find the code that has not expired!!
Hi Nora – you can try YNAB Pro (that’s the Windows download – running swimmingly on my Vista system) at this link:
http://www.youneedabudget.com/test-drive/
I downloaded it earlier today and have been plugging my numbers in and getting the hang of it. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to get the money into next month (supplemental income = this month…primary income = next month) but it has been smooth sailing since then.
I think I’ll be hooked when I figure out how to get my $114 surplus from this month into the primary income so it bumps to next month.
But the program is clean, and fun (for someone like me lol) and I’m excited I found it and am giving it a go!
Hi Jen,
I’ve been using YNAB now for 15 months, and it more than paid for itself in the first month. The real seller is the support that the system offers which is in the form of a user forum. There are free classes if you get stuck on how to work any part of the program. All the support is free, and you may even find that once you’ve been using it a while you’ll be one of the folks out there offering support to others. Some folks jump right into that their first week they love it so much.
I rarely pay for software. Being a techie, I can usually find an open source program that does exactly what I want. But YNAB is one of those applications, and has certainly paid for itself many times over. We’ve been using it for almost 2 years now.
Obviously it hasn’t generated us any income, but it has been beneficial in many ways. We are easily able to tell how much we have to spend in a category, is flexible enough to reshuffle money if required, and has given us the peace of mind that we could afford to buy our house 18 months ago, and has currently shown us that we can’t afford to replace the car that just died (at least not if we want to continue on our current saving plans).
It also has the nice benefit of being able to track all of our money in one application, and budget all of it as if it were in a single pool (current account, cash in pockets, ING account, ISA) but still balance and record transactions against each each individually.
My only grumble is that there’s no Linux version (yet – I think it’s in the pipeline)
I love YNAB. I can not say enough good about it. I have been using it for over a year now, and it has helped my finances greatly. I was not in any debt and was living comfortably, but I have been in some very deep dept and financial hell in the past and I have been determined and scared to never go back. YNAB has helped me continue to stay on track, and just having that peice of mind knowing I am a month ahead and also knowing exactly what balances I have is great. Also a big epiphany for me was realizing that I can not only save money, but I can SPEND money and not feel guilty. Every dollar has a purpose, and that is something I will now never forget because of YNAB.
Hey Jen,
You could make a category called “Buffer” or “Surplus” (or whatever) and put the $114 in there. It’ll roll into next month.
OR you can be really fancy and record a split transaction that has an inflow of $114 categorized as Primary and an outflow of $114 categorized as Supplemental. Date it in the same month as your surplus
I vote for the free trial route. Being self-employed, I’ve found most budgeting software is too inflexible for me. We already do live on last month’s income (we have to!) plus we have a buffer fund if we need it (and sometimes we do).
In our businesses, it’s pretty difficult to predict income. But most of the budgeting software doesn’t “understand” anything other than a fixed amount of income, lol! i.e. certain categories–like rent–are fixed amounts every month, but other categories (clothing, entertainment, eating out) have to change or be eliminated entirely in months when we don’t make our income goals.
I once had a kick-butt Excel spreadsheet that was awesome except that i had to manually enter all my complex calculations. If I found a program that did that job for me, I would pay for it in a heartbeat.
the software’s worth the price tag. fairly low barrier to entry, as compared to other bells-and-whistles-laden financial software, and it’s fairly versatile, when it comes to how you want to use it.
the primary benefit is that you really get a clear picture of what your money is doing every month.
It’s been a real help for me. Not only did I start living on last months income but I gained a tool for tracking my expenses. And for saving up for future expenses. Sure you can do that by yourself without buying anything, but I find this saves me time that I’d rather spend with my family.
My only gripe is that it can sometimes be difficult to sort out the system in your head for the first few months. Just a matter of getting used to the new work flow. But that’s just the nature of upgrading your personal finances from a paycheck-to-paycheck mentality.
I have been using YNAB for a almost 2 years. Very recently I purchased Microsoft money to help me track my other accounts online and see how much I liked it. And I wish I never spent that money. YNAB has got it going on. It is more logical to follow along with and the philosophy behind living on last months wages makes so much sense. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I can’t wait to get there! It will be awesome just to be able to see a bill come in and not have to ask myself where that money will come from. There is no question to me that YNAB is a superior product for someone who wants their money to work.
Go for it! I’ve been using YNAB since mid-February, and having this wonderful tool to bring to life the “4 Rules” for me has changed my life. I now look at things I see, go “..if I buy that, I’ll have to have less budgeted for _____. Is it worth it?”.
You’ve got nothing to lose by kicking YNAB’s tires for 60 days, but I suspect you’ll be so happy, you’ll wonder what took you so long to get it working for you! 
YNAB and the rules aren’t just a quick fix, but a lifestyle and behavior change; just like the person who doesn’t “diet”, but started eating healthy, YNAB has helped me get a handle on my monetary/budgetary “calories”
I’ve been using YNAB for at least 2 years now and it is still the best software I have found. I encourage you to give it a try.
I’ve been using YNAB for a little less than a year now. It has made a huge difference in my family’s finances. I’m a financial analyst and spend every day of my life manipulating excel spreadsheets and I would not even consider using excel vs the powerful features this program offers.
I’ve been using YNAB for a little over a year, and I love it.
I’m a little late chiming in here, but I wanted to answer your questions. With YNAB, it doesn’t matter what account your money is in as long as your checking account has enough money to cover the checks you are writing. I have several different accounts. One of my checking accounts is used solely for paying my mortgage. I don’t keep an extra month’s mortgage payment in there, though. The balance goes to $100 every time I pay my mortgage, but I do have enough $ in other places to cover the next month’s mortgage payment (along with all my monthly expenses).
Also you were asking how to get your surplus from this month to roll over into primary income so it shows up next month. I don’t think there is a way to do that directly, but you can have a buffer category or something like that to budget your surplus into this month. Then if you want to put it into another category next month, just enter a negative number in the budget column for your buffer category and it will go into your available funds for that month.
I’m in the same boat as the others that love YNAB. I love being able to quickly set up my monthly budget and easily see exactly where I stand each month. I tried some of the other programs out there such as Money and Quicken, but there were just to many features in them that I did not use. I ended up hearing about YNAB and I’m glad I did. Now if I could just get it on my iPhone or an online version I would be set!
Eric´s last blog ..You Need A Budget Pro – Personal Finance Software Program updated Wed Sep 23 2009 11:42 am CDT