YNAB You Need A Budget

[sunnydays]

Hi everyone- I'm a former ynab pro user who never actually used it. I've now upgraded to ynab 3 and I'm ready to commit to budgeting and using the system. I've downloaded it and the first thing I did was input my accounts. That was pretty easy because I only use 2 accounts. My available to budget is $1014.72. I do not have a buffer. Now I am confused about what I should do at this point. Do I go ahead and set up a budget for all of my expenses for the rest of the month OR do I just budget what I can with the $1014.72 until my next deposits come in?

[mozzie61]

Do I go ahead and set up a budget for all of my expenses for the rest of the month OR do I just budget what I can with the $1014.72 until my next deposits come in?

Take the second option - budget what you have available until next pay day, then repeat. The month is initially just a convenient delimiter, but of course the aim is to build your buffer until it equals 1 month's income allowing you to budget monthly, and send the current month's income forward for budgeting in the following month (living under Rule 4). I've never used YNAB Pro, but I believe the difference in YNAB3 is that the buffer calculation is built into the program and there is no need to save the buffer as a separate category (although you can still do this if you prefer). Good luck.