Jen and Ashwin
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 28, 2015
DH and I have been using YNAB for 10 months now and it has been one of the best things that we ever did. It does take some time to learn the program. We signed up and watched all of the online tutorials, which was extremely helpful. You can also search through their online manual, which I found helpful when I had a really specific question (like how to handle reimbursable work expenses so they don't mess with my budget). And when I had a question that I still couldn't understand, I sent a chat message and they helped me figure things out. The customer service is very top notch, so don't be afraid to use it.
Once you start getting used to the system, it takes very little time to set up your monthly budget. I think I spend about 5 minutes at the start of the month. On Sundays, I spend about 10 minutes per week reconciling our expenses with the program and then DH and I have a weekly budget meeting for about 10 minutes where we just review the previous week and make sure everything is on track and looks good going forward. If we have overspent in a category, we make a joint decision on how to cover that overspending. Last month we overspend on dining out by $30. We took $30 from our grocery budget to cover it. No debt accumulated. So we probably spend about 2 hours per month setting up our budget, reconciling and reviewing. It's not a huge time sink once you know the system.
The real benefit is what this has done for our finances and our relationship. Last year, we were making efforts post-wedding to eliminate credit card debt and DH's student loan. We had been making some progress before YNAB, but once we started using YNAB, we were better able to see and control our spending. So much so that we managed to do both in 6 months (about 12k in debt gone), plus we saved up for IVF costs at the same time (6k savings). Now we have no CC debt, we save monthly for irregular expenses such as HOA dues and auto insurance, we have 5k (and growing) in our emergency fund and we are making double payments on our mortgage and auto loans.
For our relationship, it has been huge. When we got married, I took care of the finances. DH would whine that I wasn't letting us do anything fun or that I was spending on things that weren't a priority. I wanted DH to get more involved, but it was hard to really show him a picture of what our money was doing in Mint (what I used before YNAB). Once we started using YNAB, DH got involved in the financial decisions and we started putting priorities on our money together, rather than me feeling like all the weight was on my shoulders. We haven't fought about money at all since we paid off the credit card debt and my stress level in relation to finances has plummeted. We have the money that we need to things set aside. We have a cushion if something unexpected were to come up. We even have more money now for those fun things that DH wanted to do and have prioritized it into our budget.
I personally love YNAB and have recommended it to many people, including friends and family. My brother is saving for a new house down payment. He makes a lot of money, but was managing it poorly. I got him into YNAB and now they have saved $12k towards the house in just 3 months by reprioritizing their existing money and better controlling their current spending. They should have enough money to buy a new house and keep their current house as a rental property within the next year. He tells me all the time how happy he is that he started using YNAB.
I stay on property at Disney, but I usually stay at Pop to save on costs
I'll just mention out of the gate that over the years, I've asked a few times for budget/money saving techniques. Every so often, I get a bee in my bonnet that I should be doing something differently financially. So I get geared up and read and ask here and then...pffffttt. I end up just maintaining the status quo, which I decide works "well enough."
