YNAB You Need A Budget

[harringg]

I have an account at a Merchant where we purchase Household and Groceries. There is a balance, and it's not yet paid in full every month (hoping to catch up with YNAB). I'm just setting up my accounts now for the first time.

Pre-YBAB Debt: Merchant Card $500
Merchant Card: Groceries, $200, Household $100 (balance now $800)
Transfer from Checking $250 (balance now $550)

What I'm confused about is the money that comes out of the check book, the month's budget will show $200 for groceries and $100 for Household, but I'm only paying $250 for this month.

I'm not talking the philosophy behind the fact that it should be paid down quicker, I'm asking in the software how do I account for it? What does it look like "on paper?"

[harringg]

Part 2:

We pay our family cell phone bill on our credit card, our kids pay for their portion of the texting and data plans they have via a transfer from their checking accounts to our credit card. Since I'm not tracking my kids in NYAB, and a transfer would be a payment, would that be a credit to the cell phone Category?

Cell bill: $200, kids portion $20, I pay $200, but have $20 put on the credit card from an outside account. So in my monthly budget, the cell phone portion is only $180 in the Budget window?

[Turf_Hacker]

I have an account at a Merchant where we purchase Household and Groceries. There is a balance, and it's not yet paid in full every month (hoping to catch up with YNAB). I'm just setting up my accounts now for the first time.

Pre-YBAB Debt: Merchant Card $500
Merchant Card: Groceries, $200, Household $100 (balance now $800)
Transfer from Checking $250 (balance now $550)

What I'm confused about is the money that comes out of the check book, the month's budget will show $200 for groceries and $100 for Household, but I'm only paying $250 for this month.

I'm not talking the philosophy behind the fact that it should be paid down quicker, I'm asking in the software how do I account for it? What does it look like "on paper?"

I think I understand your confusion. It centers on the fact that you budgeted $300 but only paid $250 in money you actually had on hand. Remember that the merchant card, as an on budget account, also contributes to the money you can spend. I believe you are accounting for it correctly, because what is happening in your YNAB accounts reflects what is happening in the real world. You budgeted $300, but only $250 ultimately came out of your checking account. This fact is captured by the merchant card balance going up by the "missing" $50. You were able to spend $300 with card and only transfer $250 to the card because you "spent" the other $50 by going further into debt on the card.

The Pre-YNAB Debt category balance is the interesting puzzle to me. Normally, once the payment to a hybrid card has been made the account balance and Pre-YNAB Debt category balance will match. In the situation you described, the only way to make this happen is to budget -$50 to this category. The interesting thing is that this shows an additional $50 available to budget because you are effectively using the additional Pre-YNAB Debt to extend your budgeting capacity. I'm not sure that this situation (hybrid card with payment less than budgeted charges) was considered because I couldn't find any references to it in the YNAB help. It was assumed, I think, that since the purchase amounts were budgeted that at least this amount would be transferred to the card.

Hopefully others will weigh in on this, because it seems to me that you should budget -$50 to the Pre-YNAB Debt category to reflect the fact that you did indeed increase the amount of debt being carried on the card.

Part 2:

We pay our family cell phone bill on our credit card, our kids pay for their portion of the texting and data plans they have via a transfer from their checking accounts to our credit card. Since I'm not tracking my kids in NYAB, and a transfer would be a payment, would that be a credit to the cell phone Category?

Cell bill: $200, kids portion $20, I pay $200, but have $20 put on the credit card from an outside account. So in my monthly budget, the cell phone portion is only $180 in the Budget window?

I would handle this exactly as you described. Budget $180 to the cell phone category and the transfer to the credit card would be an inflow using the cell phone category.

Hope this helps!

[Joel]

Turf hacker is correct in both regards... You should budget whatever to the pre-ynab debt to make th category balance equal what is remaining... Or, if your budget allows pay another 50 on the card.

[sarham]

Remember that your Pre-YNAB debt category and your Merchant account balances won't necessarily match. If you are not adding to the debt, they will match after payment. But since you are adding to the account balance by paying less than you charged, having your acct balance be higher than your Pre-YNAB debt is a correct view of the situation. You will have that much more to pay before you bring your account down to the point of continuing to pay the Pre-YNAB debt.