Is the To be Budgeted box red most of the time for you, too?
I understand the philosophy that one cannot count on future wages, so YNAB only shows you how much income has been transferred to your bank account right now, and not what you assume will be transferred later on. Fine. But I budgeted all my discretionary spending (restaurants, bookstores, etc.) based on my assumption that I will get paid. I wouldn't have added the burgers and books, otherwise.
As a result, all those (honestly) planned burgers and books makes red the To Be Budgeted box at the top of the Budget screen.
Is this to be expected and how it looks for everyone else (until pay day)? Is this part of the psych-ops? Or should I only add a value in the burgers and books row once I get my first paycheck (paycheque 🇨🇦) of the month?
-
You should never budget money you haven't received yet. Full stop.
-
Hi, Happy! When To be Budgeted goes red like that, it means that you have overbudgeted—assigning more dollars than you actually have to categories. When this happens, you can't trust your budget. So! Move money back to TBB until it is zero and green.
Because you're only budgeting money you have in hand now you have a few options once you get TBB back to zero:
1. Move money from other categories to fund your burgers and bookstores! Seriously, ask yourself: What do I want/need to fund before my next paycheck? If your electricity bill can wait until your paycheck and you want to instead budget that money toward burgers now, do it! :)
2. Wait until your paycheck is in the bank. ;)
-
If you want to budget discretionary things (or anything else) on the first of the month, you'll need to save the money from the previous month to do so. That is, unless you get paid on the first.
-
No. Only budget funds you have.
Rule number one: Give Every Dollar a Job. (No more, no less.)
-
Anything other than green and zero means you are not following the plan.
-
Fix the red. Never allow red. Doing this is the first step to letting ynab change your thinking about money. Its hard to change old habits, but truly truly, it is worth it. No red. Only budget $ that are in your account.
(Goals are the thing to use to put expected expenses into the system. I intend to spend $100 on coffee next month. I have a monthly goal of $100. When I budget my dollars, I add $100 to that category and it goes green. ) Green is good. Orange is ok too. But never red.
