Silver Inspector I think that's a pretty good analogy, actually. And expert system software does exist. It's just that nobody has combined that with budgeting software to date as far as I know. Hey, if you can spearhead that and make it work, I think your financial issues will be a thing of the past. 🙂

Silver Inspector Yeah, I recommend Ramsey's book, not his budgeting software (nor his investing strategy but that's beyond the scope of this conversation). His budget is more of a traditional budget while YNAB is a zero sum budget which I believe is better for someone trying to get un-broke. I don't think you're giving YNAB a fair shake in that regard because there have been plenty of people that have become un-broke using the YNAB system and now swear by it. I hope the simplebank app works out better for you and I'm sincerely rooting for you! With hard work and perseverance, you can do it!

Silver Inspector Well, you have been busy. Good luck with continued progress.

For anyone else reading this, there are ways to use YNAB just as effectively without being a month ahead. It is a little more effort, so think of it as "sweat equity".

That said, I know of no one who has used it both ways that did not prefer to be ahead and budget with month-sized chunks. 

dakinemaui I couldn’t figure out how to appropriately reply to this comment last night. Your reply is very well articulated as always. 

dakinemaui as the "someone else" reading this, please could you give me a pointer towards this info. 

Slate Blue Falcon I’m on my iPad and searching on this forum is a nightmare. But it boils down to the fact that your money has only one job: to sit until it’s needed. Each time you get new money, you need to decide how long it needs to sit. Some money will sit until you get in the car and go buy a burger at the drive through. Some money will sit forever in a retirment fund. Most money will be somewhere in-between. 

When you can’t fund a month at a go, you’ll fund your categories piece by piece. Perhaps each week you’ll add $60 to groceries. If your rent is $1000, maybe you’ll budget $500 from your first paycheck and $500 from your second paycheck. My most extreme example was that I only had $100/week to spend on everything that wasn’t a fixed bill, so I budgeted for $36 haircuts every six weeks by setting aside $6 each week. So yes, if you set a goal, your rent will show that you need another $500 for half the month because you *do* need it. It doesn’t mean you have to twist yourself into a pretzel to fund a month at a time, though you should absolutely prioritize having enough cash to budget a month at a time. What it does mean is that from your next available money, $500 will need to go to rent. 

WordTenor Thank you, that's a good way to look at it, I know I'm guilty of perfectionism and if I'm unable to do it by the book (failing) I lose the motivation to keep trying. Creating manageable expectations is something I'm working on in other areas of life so it makes sense to do the same with YNAB. 

Since September last year I stopped budgeting as the acute awareness of lack of funds was stressing me out, and instead I focussed my efforts on raising my income so I did have enough to budget on the monthly. However, the fear of going to the effort of budgeting everything only to once again find I didn't have a months funding was enough to stop me trying. I can see now that my issue stemmed more from managing my stress than the budgeting. 

What I've learned is it's wiser to be aware of impending budgetary requirements and be ready to address them asap, than to give up /put my head in the sand/ leave it to luck. The sense of power/ control budgeting brings can have a greater positive impact than leaving it to pure chance. 

Thanks again.

Slate Blue Falcon The normal YNAB recommendation when you receive income is to think about what it needs to do before being paid again. Some of it will be used immediately, and some needs to partially fund something (to be combined with additional funds later). Often people will create category groups to help allocate (e.g., Check 1 and Check 2) and drag categories into the desired positions.

The biggest issue with this -- not unique to YNAB, BTW, as it's what everyone naturally does -- is you have to identify a subset of categories that "fit" into each paycheck. This is further complicated by the fact some expenses (e.g., Rent/Mortgage) are too large and must be split across multiple checks.

If that sounds familiar, that's simply the True Expense concept (Rule 2). YNAB explains it on a monthly basis, but that doesn't work optimally unless you're paid monthly (which I assume is not the case). My preference is to apply it on a paycheck basis. ALL categories are split across checks -- even monthly expenses. This makes for a consistent process which reduces mistakes and improves clarity.

Every time you're paid, just rip through your categories incrementing the budget value by the per-check contribution. Do this on a priority basis, because you'll stop when TBB is $0. The things that don't get money are therefore less important.

The per-check portion for normal bill categories is the remaining amount needed divided by the number of checks you'll budget before the outflow. You can record this right in the category name or notes for reference.

For discretionary categories like groceries, budget enough to get to the next paycheck. (Again, use the same amount every check.)

Don't bother flipping screens, just budget to the month in which you receive your checks. It's simple, your plan is all on one screen, and you'll also never be prone to the Stealing From the Future design flaw.

Ultimately, budgeting in month-sized chunks is better, but you need to get ahead first in order to do that. As far as getting ahead when applying Rule 2 on a paycheck basis, I think going old-school is the way to go rather than budget piecemeal to future months. Create a category called Transition To Monthly, and start chucking money into that category like any other bill. The total you need is your monthly income minus expenses paid before your first check. When you've got that much money in the category, you can stop the paycheck-to-paycheck budgeting.

The transition: release all the money in the Transition category and budget the rest of the current month.

Ongoing monthly-budgeting: Put your paychecks into a temporary holding category to get them out of the way. At the end of the month (or when you've got all of your checks), release those funds and budget all of next month in one shot.