YNAB OCUKers & 2025 Budgeting!

[MichaelAwkward]

This also means we have never been indebted and indeed I would argue that as a result of this I am equally more financially responsible than 95% of the population. Not being a douche.

This is quite a juvenile mischaracterisation of its function and purpose; debt is ultimately how the modern world exists. It shouldn’t be written off as always a bad thing but then I guess personal responsibility is an old fashioned idea at this point.

As someone who's worked in IT for a long time, I've seen way too many complex things being ran inside of either Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets or a god awful Access database, yet they did run and work for years. The thought of someone not being able to use excel (or Google sheets or libre) for basic budgeting is kind of funny in that respect. It's such a light weight task for Excel!

It’s literally just adding up and subtracting. Perhaps some %s and adding categories, throw in a monthly table etc. It can be as basic or as complex as you like.

I use Excel for my personal finances; I once used https://www.manager.io/ for fun whilst I was studying (pretending my personal finances were business transactions) but it was overkill (as you’d expect).

Most people could probably graduate from YNAB to a simple spreadsheet once they’re on top of their finances. I guess if it helps with that first step it’s good. Although not sure I’d pay that much for it.

 

[LuckyBenski]

I miss the old Hagar comics before the new writer :/

 

[dlockers]

I miss the old Hagar comics before the new writer :/

 

[EvilRob]

Most people could probably graduate from YNAB to a simple spreadsheet once they’re on top of their finances. I guess if it helps with that first step it’s good. Although not sure I’d pay that much for it.

It really depends what you use it for IMO. I've not used YNAB but for budgeting software in general, if it's just cash in vs cash out, sure. If it's budgeting at the category and transaction level across multiple accounts, I think a spreadsheet is a downgrade. Money hub at £1.50 a month vs YNAB at £15 seems a much better deal, though.

 

[Mysterae_]

I doubt anyone is doing it as autistic as I am - but I cannot fathom how anyone can live without a cashflow forecast for this month/next month. Y'all must be making way more money than me to not have that worry.

The double click on spend categories etc. is then just "useful" but I generally lean-six-sigma greenbelt everything anyway (buy it when its cheap, not when I need it). So it wouldn't make sense for me to cap spend at £300/mo on groceries because I can have an expensive cash month but save a bundle in later months.

I think I might be in competition with you lol. I originally tried Microsoft Money 98 and it was terrible, I think that put me off financial apps for life. So I started my own spreadsheet about 20 years ago and it's evolved in to quite the monster, I'm quite proud and protective of it (as sad as that may sound!) and just needs a little input to keep me true and steady.

Each month has a sheet of it's own and in one glance I can see that month's current account, mortgage progress, multiple credit cards expenditure, crypto balances, stocks & shares, ISA progress, along with various graphs plotting the past, current and future balances. It's a big screen lol! It's also a thing of beauty (yes, sad I know, I heard you the first time ). Yes I need to manually enter the data but that takes minutes (I previously used APIs for this but removed them in the name of security).

The power to forecast months in advance is extremely useful, to schedule those big expenditures such as car insurance and the like. To see the impact of unexpected purchases has on future months and if it's going to be okay or will I have to move stuff around etc. I'm not sure if these apps can do the same? Can they also connect to credit card providers?

For those that need or have used an app to help them with their finances, it's no different to using any other method, as long as it works for you. Many here just think you don't need to pay for one.

 

[Gammawolf]

I used to use Money Dashboard years ago but i switched to Monzo and found its information to be fine for us as a replacement. Me and my wife have personal Monzo accounts, mainly just to open the joint account and everything goes in and out of the joint account. No other banks besides keeping the old HSBC one open for the purposes of physical presence and virtual check deposits (so no need to pay to have monzo import data from other places). This works well enough as all transactions are co audited so there really isn't frivolous spending and extra expenditure is talked about/agreed upon.

We don’t really have a need for fancy forecasting as our philosophy is to pay for things outright (with exception for house) so it simply is a case of “if theres no money in the bank now to pay for it, we can’t afford it”. I think its also a mentality thing, we are lucky to have a lot of monthly excess but we view saving as another “expenditure” so there has to be a really good reason to decided to take away from that to buy something else. Much like you’d really need a good reason to decide to spend less on food to buy something else. But I think we come from fundamentally a different angle to most people, we don’t aim to track our spending, we aim to track our savings. So as such, budgeting takes care of itself naturally.

 

[j4ska]

Just because you don't know about it does not mean others don't. It's one of, if not the, most popular budgeting platform for home use out there.

No idea if you've noticed but very small majority ppl here needs help with simple maths

 

[Efour]

Stuff

Same boat as me in a nutshell.
I've never needed to track every penny so I guess count me lucky
I've never had more that 2 or 3 loans at once and everything now is either monthly bills or savings. It's an easy life tbh.

 

[Hellsmk2]

I think the trigger is that vulnerable people are being conned* into another subscription.

*easily achievable without paying a subscription/ probably understand your money better

That just isn't true in the slightest - you're calling someone looking for a tool to help with their finances vulnerable? Do you not see how utterly ridiculous a statement that is? I'd call it sensible personally.

It's a super popular tool that has helped thousands get a grip on their money, me included: -40k to +40k in the first three years for less than the price of a pint per month. Great value in my mind. It is simple though, if you don't want to use it, then don't. Good for you. Stop ******* on people that do use it successfully.

 

[dlockers]

That just isn't true in the slightest - you're calling someone looking for a tool to help with their finances vulnerable? Do you not see how utterly ridiculous a statement that is? I'd call it sensible personally.

It's a super popular tool that has helped thousands get a grip on their money, me included: -40k to +40k in the first three years for less than the price of a pint per month. Great value in my mind. It is simple though, if you don't want to use it, then don't. Good for you. Stop ******* on people that do use it successfully.

I think you're just triggered by the word vulnerable. The fact you were minus 40k means you may once have been vulnerable. The swing of 80k in 3 years means it was never a money problem.

 

[Hellsmk2]

No idea if you've noticed but very small majority ppl here needs help with simple maths

They do need help with their superiority complexes though. I'm surprised you can see us sat in your ivory tower.

You can be good at maths and still not be good with money. I really hope you don't need a calculator at any point, because that would be a total cop out when you can do everything with a pen and paper.

 

[dlockers]

I think I might be in competition with you lol. I originally tried Microsoft Money 98 and it was terrible, I think that put me off financial apps for life. So I started my own spreadsheet about 20 years ago and it's evolved in to quite the monster, I'm quite proud and protective of it (as sad as that may sound!) and just needs a little input to keep me true and steady.

Each month has a sheet of it's own and in one glance I can see that month's current account, mortgage progress, multiple credit cards expenditure, crypto balances, stocks & shares, ISA progress, along with various graphs plotting the past, current and future balances. It's a big screen lol! It's also a thing of beauty (yes, sad I know, I heard you the first time ). Yes I need to manually enter the data but that takes minutes (I previously used APIs for this but removed them in the name of security).

The power to forecast months in advance is extremely useful, to schedule those big expenditures such as car insurance and the like. To see the impact of unexpected purchases has on future months and if it's going to be okay or will I have to move stuff around etc. I'm not sure if these apps can do the same? Can they also connect to credit card providers?

For those that need or have used an app to help them with their finances, it's no different to using any other method, as long as it works for you. Many here just think you don't need to pay for one.

Would love to compare notes lol. I'm not managing wealth, more avoiding falling off of a cliff edge tho

 

[Hellsmk2]

I think you're just triggered by the word vulnerable. The fact you were minus 40k means you may once have been vulnerable. The swing of 80k in 3 years means it was never a money problem.

Thanks for the judgement having never met me, nor knowing my financial situation.

I'm triggered by a bunch of people, who probably have multiple subscriptions to other services, getting on a really weird high horse about others using a service that they find useful. The same people who have never even tried the service, nor know anything in the slightest about it - how it works, what it can do, etc. It's about as stupid as it gets.

 

[dlockers]

I'm triggered by a bunch of people, who probably have multiple subscriptions to other services, getting on a really weird high horse about others using a service that they find useful

The irony of this one is you are paying to save money

Thanks for the judgement having never met me, nor knowing my financial situation.

Right back at you lol. Maybe go and touch some grass if other peoples opinions of what is value for money winds you up so much.

 

[Hellsmk2]

The irony of this one is you are paying to save money



Right back at you lol. Maybe go and touch some grass if other peoples opinions of what is value for money winds you up so much.

Paying a tiny amount to save a whole lot of money and be informed about what is in my ISA's, my kids ISA's my savings accounts, my stocks & shares, my mortgage, my crypto, my credit cards - all from a single pane, all within seconds. I have savings envelopes for bills, for emergencies, for holidays and a whole host of other QoL aims - zero stress about money at any point.

Yes you could achieve that with excel, but let's be honest, the majority who do budgeting that way will not have access to even a fraction of the information you get from fully fledged budgeting software. If it works for you, then that's absolutely A ok, but again, why **** on someone who wants to use a service?

Why use Netflix when there is terrestrial TV? Why use Spotify when there are CD's? Why use Prime when you can nip down to the shops? Is it really that difficult to understand?

 

[dlockers]

Paying a tiny amount to save a whole lot of money and be informed about what is in my ISA's, my kids ISA's my savings accounts, my stocks & shares, my mortgage, my crypto, my credit cards - all from a single pane, all within seconds. I have savings envelopes for bills, for emergencies, for holidays and a whole host of other QoL aims - zero stress about money at any point.

Yes you could achieve that with excel, but let's be honest, the majority who do budgeting that way will not have access to even a fraction of the information you get from fully fledged budgeting software. If it works for you, then that's absolutely A ok, but again, why **** on someone who wants to use a service?

Why use Netflix when there is terrestrial TV? Why use Spotify when there are CD's? Why use Prime when you can nip down to the shops? Is it really that difficult to understand?

Is it really difficult for you to understand that I disagree? :S Not sure why you are so defensive/upset. Are you an investor into YNAB or something?

Terrestrial TV costs money BTW. And so do CDs. So it is a false comparison. Logging into your ISAs, etc every day costs £0 and builds much better financial discipline.

 

[j4ska]

You can be good at maths and still not be good with money

That's purely skill (or lack of it) issue here. If you can do simple maths and be no good with money you're not too good with maths then...

 

[Nutty667]

That's purely skill (or lack of it) issue here. If you can do simple maths and be no good with money you're not too good with maths then...

I disagree. Being good with money is more than just numbers, it's about willpower and restraint to not spend what you don't have, and also making prudent choices which are more than just numerical.

 

[j4ska]

I disagree. Being good with money is more than just numbers, it's about willpower and restraint to not spend what you don't have, and also making prudent choices which are more than just numerical.

so skill issue

 

[Nutty667]

so skill issue

In area's other than maths.