Why I love "YNAB"

I woke up this morning thinking about something I use all the time and rarely tell anyone about.  But cliche as it sounds it has been *life changing* for Burke and I to have this resource and since I am so full of gratitude for it I thought I should share my experience.   (And just to be clear I am not an affiliate or anything-- just a super happy consumer.)  Its called YNAB and it is basically budgeting software. An acronym for "You Need A Budget", it is more than just tracking your expenditures and income, it also has rules for how to build a reserve and pay off debt and just live smart and below your means.


Burke and I were both taught the basics of budgeting by our wonderful parents, but the first several years of our marriage our budget meetings were more like lofty wish lists.  We could spend the money on paper okay, but then the reality was never matching up.  So we  didn't have money meetings very often.  We paid our bills and spent lots of money-- more than we had sometimes.  It was such a crazy terrorizing feeling to be so out of control with the money.  Anyway we had a whole lot of real life show up to help us get back on track.  And we did--but not without a lot of trial and error.  I had used other software programs through the years, but somehow they always got off track and I would spend hours trying to reconcile the checkbook.  So after our personal great crash of 2008-2009 I just stuck to pen and paper reconciliation.  I spent 3 hours every week to stay on top of it.  I did it that way for more than a year.  I think I just had to get really grounded in the reality of dealing with money and being accountable for every action with it.  I was petrified when YNAB was recommended to me by my sister because I had had so many negative experiences with other software programs.  But it was taking so much of my time and energy to handle the money side of our life that I knew I needed to find a better system.  Don't get me wrong-- it was infinitely less painful to spend that 3 hours per week and know exactly where we were, than it was to be living a life of overspending and finding out later just how bad it was.  So, armed with the Free 30 day trial, I decided I didn't have anything to lose by trying it out.  And it was very easy to use.  And . . . I only used the tracking side of things consistently.  And I was NEVER off again. It was easy to find any duplicate entries and I never again had the agony of figuring out where I got off by .60 so my checkbook register would always reconcile with the bank balance.  We read Dave Ramsey's book and started doing "baby steps" as he calls them.   It was the first time in my life that I had saved $1000 dollars with NO intention of spending it.  Over the course of the next 2.5 years we settled all of our old gross debts that were no longer tied to assets.  We were getting free. 

The software continued to be updated and improved, and since my budget side of things was still a mess I restarted my budget over the years a total of three times.  But I was still soooo not great at budgeting. I just hated that word.  And I had NO IDEA how to make it work.  How do you take it from paper (or a spreadsheet) to reality?  So at the beginning of this year we finally watched the YNAB training videos and committed to the 4 rules.  We restarted our budget with $25 in our checking account.  We were STILL in the trap of living paycheck to paycheck.  Then, WAY faster than I ever could have hoped, our buffer was built and we were living on last months income.  It became a bit of a game for Burke and I to see where we could cut our spending to build up that buffer.  We goofed up a few times over this year and had to rebuild that buffer.  But we finally were tasting the sweet satisfaction of paying CASH for those nagging "nonessential" (for day to day) items--things that we were convincing ourselves we would never had enough money for.  We got our food storage built up. I got new furniture.  And a new bed for our son.  We finally were in position to buy a house on some land and still have room in our budget to pay for other things besides our mortgage.  And there are not words to describe the peace that comes from living below your means and having a little bit of space between you and next costly unexpected expense.  We still have SO FAR to go to be self reliant and free from debt.  I would love to furnish and update and decorate my new house completely by yesterday.  But it will come.  I know it!  Undoubtedly the Lord has blessed our meager efforts to heal our personal financial crisis and live with peace and happiness no matter what our circumstances look like, and I am so grateful for the tool of YNAB that has literally taken the pain out of budgeting for us!