YNAB You Need A Budget

[violentlyserene]

I've had YNAB for a while but hadn't really used it much beyond categorizing our expenses. This month I want to dive in and fully use the software but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the buffer right. I started fresh in a new budget and imported only expenses from this month. From what I can tell, the available balance in my checking and savings should be the buffer but it doesn't, it's a few hundred dollars less. I tried to recategorize thing but can't get the numbers right. Does anyone know how I might fix this?

Also, I would like to just sort of ignore my savings account. I find we save more if I just use the auto transfer and forget it's there. How do I remove that from the buffer?


Edit: To clarify the buffer issue, my problem is that when I started a brand new budget and catergorized the items in the checking account view, the starting buffer for the month amount was smaller than the actual balance of the account. I'm sure it's just something little I'm missing but I'm the world's worst proofreader and ynab is very confusing for me anyway.

[malisab]

I'll start with the easier question...

I would like to just sort of ignore my savings account. I find we save more if I just use the auto transfer and forget it's there. How do I remove that from the buffer?

Ok. So you've got a checking and a saving account set up. It sounds like they're both on budget (the money from them is available to budget) and you'd like to get the savings money out of the available. Make a category or categories for the savings account and budget the money there. That will take it out of the available.

I've had YNAB for a while but hadn't really used it much beyond categorizing our expenses. This month I want to dive in and fully use the software but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the buffer right. I started fresh in a new budget and imported only expenses from this month. From what I can tell, the available balance in my checking and savings should be the buffer but it doesn't, it's a few hundred dollars less. I tried to recategorize thing but can't get the numbers right. Does anyone know how I might fix this?

If you've categorized, but not budgeted, the available to budget should be big. Or maybe you've budgeted the actual amount of the expenses as you've categorized them? I'm not good at visualizing these things.

Sorry for the string of links, but here's a link to a post I made earlier today giving links to some 'help me balance' type threads. Maybe they will help until someone who can 'see' it better comes along.

ynab-f38/question-confused-t8541.html#p55473

Welcome!

[violentlyserene]

Thank you for the help! I'll check out the links and go from there.