With YNAB one of the things you should try to do is build a cash buffer so that at some point you’ll always be a month ahead, i.e. you can budget next month’s expenses today.
But building that buffer can take a bit of time, and just leaving money sitting unallocated to a certain budget category can get both confusing and tempting.
This is how I get around it:-
If you’re outside the US there are very few budgeting services that can connect to your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit card accounts and automatically update your budget software.
That doesn’t bother me, because I like to reconcile my budget daily with my accounts; it helps me stay motivated and gives me a sense of control.
I have accounts with 4 different financial services providers and it quickly becomes a pain having to login, go through the security, and get your balances every day just to make sure your budget program is in line with your actual finances.
I’ve always been a firm believer that if you’re going to have to live by a strict budget then be sure to allocate some money to yourself to spend on whatever you like. This goes doubly for me because if I can’t treat myself within budget I do it outside of budget which is just idiotic.
So with my new budget I’ve allocated myself $100 per month to spend on anything I see fit. I’ve done this for a while now, and I discovered that what I was doing was spending most of it in one go at the start of the month and then getting really anxious or going over budget at the end of the month just so I could spend more.
To get around this…and I think I’ve said this before…my brother has taken away my cards and he’s giving me $20 per week of that $100 to spend. And it’s actually working out great!
I have the worst shopping habits. I find that I visit the supermarket nearly every day to buy that night’s dinner. For some reason every time I go I spend between $25 and $30…this is to feed four people. That’s a lot of money - around $350 a month for the fortnight I buy groceries (my brother buys the other fortnight).
But over the last few months I’ve been using Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals - an iPhone app recipe book.
It lists some really tasty recipes and I’ve found that they all work together. You can stock the pantry with ingredients that transfer to all other recipes in the app. This has meant I’ve really cut down on my spending. In fact I now spend on average around $200 for my fortnight, which is a saving of about $150…and that’s not small money!
I’m looking after my budget by myself from now on, with help from my brother. By help I mean he’s taking possession of my cards so I don’t fall off the wagon like I have in the past. This might seem drastic, but I’m all for it…anyhow…
I’ve never had much luck with budgeting programs; they were all too complicated for me, and I could never get them to reconcile them with my bank balance. The two biggies are Microsoft Money (no longer in development) and Quicken. Both are hopeless for a simpleton like me.
But I’ve stumbled onto a winner now! It’s called YouNeedABudget. It’s built using Adobe Air so it works on any operating system, and it also comes with an iPhone app.
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