For the last three years or so, my husband and I were using a particular budgeting app that worked great for our needs when we started, but became less and less useful. The bigger problem was that it had limited features.
Several months ago we signed up for a 34-day trial of a budgeting software called You Need a Budget and became instant fans. You Need a Budget or YNAB, pronounced "Why-Nab" though we prefer to call it "Yuh-Nab," is basically a digital envelope system with the basic principles taught by financial advisors like Dave Ramsey but with the flexibility of real life.
What We Loved
We loved that the software was available on our desktop, phones, and iPads all with one single purchase. That's a total of six devices for one price! The program synced through my beloved Dropbox and worked fantastically on everything except the iPad. Both my husband and I could never get the app to sync correctly on either of our iPads. But we happily overlooked it because it worked so well on our other devices. The sync was so quick. It would literally take a matter of less than five seconds and my husband could see what I was looking at and he could see what I was looking at. Awesome!
My husband and I get paid at unique times each month. Instead of a consistent day each month, we get paid on Thursdays. While my husband gets paid every two weeks, which is sometimes more than twice a month, I get paid once a month, so sometimes my paycheck comes in on the 15th and sometimes it comes in almost a week later. In other words, our cash flow is super-inconsistent. YNAB was so forgiving of that! Let's say I had $400 in my grocery category for January 2016 and I grocery shop on Saturdays. This particular January there are five weekends, but I know that my $400 won't stretch that far for various reasons this month. So I spent $360 during the first four weeks on groceries and only have $40 left for the fifth Saturday. Now if I was really strict about my budget, I would make my groceries fit into the $40, but I am having friends over on Sunday and need to spend an extra $20 to accommodate. I know that I won't spend all $400 in February, so I spend the extra $20 and go $20 in debt for January. According to the envelope system, I should have planned better or put some groceries back or starved. According to various financial advisors, I should have reallocated money from a different category, but YNAB graciously allowed me to borrow from the coming month. By the end of February, all is well and I am not in debt at all. This is a vastly different situation from other financial programs.
As well as a handful of other personalizations. It wasn't so much features as it was the flexibility to adapt the budget to our style of handling money. We don't carry credit card debt from month to month. We don't have school debt. As far as debt, we only have a monthly car payment, though we will soon take on a mortgage.
While we love our YNAB, we are very disappointed with the company. When we bought the software a few months ago, we knew that there was a update coming in the undetermined future. We looked forward to trying it and writing a glowing review about the the program that has brought our financial situation into a beautiful wrapped package of visibility, clarity, and control. But the new YNAB came out right at the end of 2015, and unfortunately I cannot recommend it at this point.
The new version of my beloved YNAB isn't an update. It is a total redo. While it is visually appealing and has a handful of fun new features, it feels like a clunky step backward in budgeting. One of the biggest things that I positively despised about the new version is that I can't transfer last minute debt to the next month just because of how the calendar works. You are now forced to reallocate the money from other categories. That just doesn't work for my life.
Basically the new version is trying to force you to budget according to their financial principles, and for some, that is a wonderful feature. But for those of us looking for a visual, flexible, and clear budget, this probably isn't the one for you. Sad day. I was looking forward to gushing about YNAB.
Several months ago we signed up for a 34-day trial of a budgeting software called You Need a Budget and became instant fans. You Need a Budget or YNAB, pronounced "Why-Nab" though we prefer to call it "Yuh-Nab," is basically a digital envelope system with the basic principles taught by financial advisors like Dave Ramsey but with the flexibility of real life.
What We Loved
We loved that the software was available on our desktop, phones, and iPads all with one single purchase. That's a total of six devices for one price! The program synced through my beloved Dropbox and worked fantastically on everything except the iPad. Both my husband and I could never get the app to sync correctly on either of our iPads. But we happily overlooked it because it worked so well on our other devices. The sync was so quick. It would literally take a matter of less than five seconds and my husband could see what I was looking at and he could see what I was looking at. Awesome!
My husband and I get paid at unique times each month. Instead of a consistent day each month, we get paid on Thursdays. While my husband gets paid every two weeks, which is sometimes more than twice a month, I get paid once a month, so sometimes my paycheck comes in on the 15th and sometimes it comes in almost a week later. In other words, our cash flow is super-inconsistent. YNAB was so forgiving of that! Let's say I had $400 in my grocery category for January 2016 and I grocery shop on Saturdays. This particular January there are five weekends, but I know that my $400 won't stretch that far for various reasons this month. So I spent $360 during the first four weeks on groceries and only have $40 left for the fifth Saturday. Now if I was really strict about my budget, I would make my groceries fit into the $40, but I am having friends over on Sunday and need to spend an extra $20 to accommodate. I know that I won't spend all $400 in February, so I spend the extra $20 and go $20 in debt for January. According to the envelope system, I should have planned better or put some groceries back or starved. According to various financial advisors, I should have reallocated money from a different category, but YNAB graciously allowed me to borrow from the coming month. By the end of February, all is well and I am not in debt at all. This is a vastly different situation from other financial programs.
As well as a handful of other personalizations. It wasn't so much features as it was the flexibility to adapt the budget to our style of handling money. We don't carry credit card debt from month to month. We don't have school debt. As far as debt, we only have a monthly car payment, though we will soon take on a mortgage.
While we love our YNAB, we are very disappointed with the company. When we bought the software a few months ago, we knew that there was a update coming in the undetermined future. We looked forward to trying it and writing a glowing review about the the program that has brought our financial situation into a beautiful wrapped package of visibility, clarity, and control. But the new YNAB came out right at the end of 2015, and unfortunately I cannot recommend it at this point.
The new version of my beloved YNAB isn't an update. It is a total redo. While it is visually appealing and has a handful of fun new features, it feels like a clunky step backward in budgeting. One of the biggest things that I positively despised about the new version is that I can't transfer last minute debt to the next month just because of how the calendar works. You are now forced to reallocate the money from other categories. That just doesn't work for my life.
Basically the new version is trying to force you to budget according to their financial principles, and for some, that is a wonderful feature. But for those of us looking for a visual, flexible, and clear budget, this probably isn't the one for you. Sad day. I was looking forward to gushing about YNAB.
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