However, you’re encouraged to adjust each month’s budget as you go, so there’s always scope to bring your budget in line with your actual spending. One month we spent more on books than we expected and much less than anticipated on groceries, for example. Over the three months we budgeted, our expenditure in various categories didn’t always tally with the budget. It can feel a little odd if you’re not used to controlling your spending in this way, so we studied how spent our money worked out a budget.
The intention is that every pound be accounted for in advance, so you’re less inclined to spend money at random simply because it’s in your account or your pocket. You set your budget on a month-by-month basis. For example, we gave ourselves a budget to spend on games, and created a savings entry to help us save money for next year's festival tickets.
You can most easily make savings on non-essential expenses. Your budget shouldn't be restricted to just the basic essentials unless that's all you spend money on. You can create as many master categories and sub-categories as you need. Each master category has sub-categories, so our coffee fund and expected monthly grocery shop are filed as everyday expenses while our rent and utilities go under monthly bills. Expenses are split into Master Categories such as monthly bills, everyday expenses, savings goals and rainy day funds.
#YOU NEED A BUDGET REVIEW HOW TO#
YNAB's tutorials also provide guidance on how to categorise things. If you’re concerned about how much you spend on coffee each month, for example, you could create a field especially for it.īreakdown your spending by category or see it all on a big sheet There are separate columns for each month's planned budget, actual expenditure and the balance of the two, which shows whether or not you’ve spent more or less than you budgeted.Ĭonveniently, your budget sheet can be used to track exactly how much you spend on specific items. This is where you plan your outgoings for the month and see how your planned budget tallies with your actual spending. Scheduled transactions are displayed in their own frame at the bottom of the account window.Įach transaction you enter has to match a corresponding field on your budget sheet. It's also easy to edit entries later if required.
They're marked “uncleared” until you approve them, prompting you to keep an eye on routine outgoings. You can enter recurring payments, so regular transactions such as your rent going out or wages coming in can be automated. You enter incoming and outgoing financial transactions in the Account screen. It's all very simple, and you can manage everything from just a couple of screens. Common fields are titled rent, mortgage, groceries and charitable giving, for example. It also helps you customise the fields in your budget sheet. YNAB has a built-in tutorial that takes you through the basics of creating an entry for your bank account. Initially, you must enter your current financial data. YNAB's report screen is handy if you want to see your spending split into categories
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