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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: theglobetrotter on June 04, 2014, 03:32:36 PM

Title: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: theglobetrotter on June 04, 2014, 03:32:36 PM
I am trying YNAB and I like it. I've been using a spreadsheet and I have HomeBudget app on my phone but I like YNAB because of the whole budgeting, rollover, and multiple devices feature. With the spreadsheet and HomeBudget, I only input my stuff and whatever I get via the bank account IF we use our debit cards.

Anyhow... we are debt free, we have a decent savings + investment for what we make + situation, and we'll have a pension. But I'd like to be able to see where everything goes. We save at the beginning of the month (investments and direct deposit to CapitalOne who once upon a time was INGDirect) and we can run the checking account to zero and we'll be just fine. I know that we can utilize our money better and maybe even save more.

Here's the tricky part. My husband is completely tech unfriendly! He can't even buy an app or update on his smart phone. If it's not on the front screen, the app doesn't exist :) If the web browser doesn't work, he'll assume the whole Internet is broken. And now I am asking him to input words and numbers into this app on his phone.

Then there's also the part of him having to remember to do the actual inputting or at least savings his receipts. He sees no point of inputing a $1 parking meter spending or if he withdraws $10, it should just be input in as a withdrawal and not where the money is going.

He does like the idea of this app. But he's kind of thinking I am going a bit too far asking him to input his lunch, £2 coffee with that ATM money (and the idea of having to first convert that pound into dollars -- we live in England but paid in dollars), etc. When I showed him his almost $50/mo hair cut, he about fell out his seat :)

I need ideas on how you got your significant other to regularly input their spending. Do you input things like parking?

For us, we have an allowance every month. We get $100 on the 1st and 15th. Should I just put $100 outflow in YNAB and be done with it or should I insist on him inputting each single outflow? Other things that uses the debit card I can catch but the cash bit I'm not so sure.

Or if you go on vacation. Do you stop to input after an ice cream purchase, a $.50 postcard, etc? Or you just input $50 under the vacation category?

Thanks!
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Snowwabbit on June 04, 2014, 03:44:11 PM
Hi putri,
I give myself an allowance every week which is mine to spend on the odd coffee or lunch. I just record it in ynab as 'cash' (in your case it might be 'his allowance'), and don't otherwise record what I do with it - like your husband that would be too much effort for me! Same with your vacation example below (unless it was something otherwise budgeted for like 'groceries' etc). This might be a good approach for you until your husband is on board and seeing the difference that ynab makes?
:)
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: nawhite on June 04, 2014, 04:12:09 PM
It sounds like Mint.com would be a much better solution for your family than YNAB. No inputting stuff yourself (other than sometimes assigning a purchase to the correct category if Mint can't figure it out), no app for your husband to use, no saving receipts. And, if your reasoning for using one of these is just to figure out where your money goes, Mint does that great. YNAB is much more helpful if you have problems with overspending. If you don't, why not simplify and use Mint?
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: theglobetrotter on June 04, 2014, 05:45:47 PM
Thanks Snowwabbit!! We'll go that route during this trial period and see!

Nawhite, I have had Mint for ages but the amount Mint thinks I have and how much I've spent is beyond me!! Example... Let's say a $4000 paycheck came in. Every start of the month I only put the amount that my spreadsheet said we should be spending until the 15th and putting that into the checking account. So for this example let's say $2000. If I have any leftovers from the month before, I always transfer it to savings. Well, Mint will show that I have $2200 in the account (the $200 was from the last month) AND -$800 on spending <---- where did this come from?!?! Not only was Mint not updating properly, it's showing that I have a negative.

I am tech savvy so I can probably sort it out if I try. BUT, I am not really wanting to because of the updating issue and I have to always repair the bank connection.

Stinks!! I also have Personal Capital. I think that's the name. I haven't really used it for budgeting. I like looking at it better lately than Mint because it actually connects to all our accounts.

YNAB is spendy, even with the discount code, but it's working so well!
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: MicroRN on June 04, 2014, 05:58:58 PM
You're just going to have trouble if you try to insist on him putting in every transaction.  I asked my husband to use the debit card for everything so I can track it more easily.  When he pulls cash I have a rough idea of what he spends it on (mostly food/coffee) and I just estimate.  It doesn't give us an accurate-to-the-penny budget, but it's close enough.   I'd like it if he would track, but insisting that he do so would just ed up in an unnecessary argument.  I enjoy crunching numbers, he hates it. 
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: theglobetrotter on June 04, 2014, 06:44:39 PM
Well, we're just in day 5. We will adjust accordingly and decide at the end of the trial if it's worth the hassle of knowing exactly where money goes or if the spreadsheet is good enough.

Thank you for taking the time to comment!!
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Joel on June 04, 2014, 07:55:55 PM
You can setup pocket sense to download and import all your accounts streamlining the process of reconciling your accounts. Highly recommend ynab.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: spanky on June 04, 2014, 08:12:50 PM
I'm a huge fan of YNAB because of how conscious it makes me of my spending. NOTHING gets spent that isn't charged against a budget. The wife and I both know that if we don't track everything the numbers won't add up... and we'll be basically screwed.

I do keep a general "spending money" category for both of us to have some "sanity" money. That is, a predetermined amount each month we can spend without having to explain or defend the expense to the other.

My wife isn't very tech savvy, so if she goes on a grocery run, for example, I just tell her to bring back the receipt so I can record and catergorize the spending. For me, being able to enter spending right on my smartphone is an amazing convenience.

Thanks in large part to YNAB(and MMM), I've gotten my month-to-month spending down to about 70% of my income. Not great by mustachian standards, but compared to the 100% paycheck to paycheck living I was doing before, it's a huge step in the right direction.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Cpa Cat on June 04, 2014, 08:31:14 PM
For us, we have an allowance every month. We get $100 on the 1st and 15th. Should I just put $100 outflow in YNAB and be done with it or should I insist on him inputting each single outflow? Other things that uses the debit card I can catch but the cash bit I'm not so sure.

Or if you go on vacation. Do you stop to input after an ice cream purchase, a $.50 postcard, etc? Or you just input $50 under the vacation category?

Thanks!

1) Yes. Just put the $100 outflow as Husband - allowance and be done with it. It's his allowance, so it doesn't really matter where it spends it or if he tracks it.

2) If he does a cash withdrawal beyond the $100, then tell him to input the cash withdrawal and at least assign a general category for what it's for. That will give you a pretty decent idea of what the cash is going to and then you can pick your battles if cash purchases turn out to be a major factor in your budget.

3) OMG Just set a vacation budget. Who wants to track every single ice cream while on vacation?
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Cressida on June 04, 2014, 10:06:32 PM
"not into remembering" LOL

Yeah, I feel you. Good luck.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: lazysundays on June 05, 2014, 02:52:30 PM
I check mint daily for new transactions.  Any that dh forgot to log in show up in the various accounts.  It's super quick and very true to real numbers that way. We have $50 cash each per month that can go anywhere once it leaves the spending $ category. All else can be tracked.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: homeymomma on June 05, 2014, 03:35:56 PM
I do our budget entirely by myself. My husband has never once looked or cared or updated anything. We use cards for everything, and mint.com, so I can still track his stuff anyway. I suppose it would be different if either of us used cash, but we don't. Probably having a cash allowance that wasn't otherwise divided up except as "fun money" would be a solution to the cash issue.

Mint is great. Once you teach it what categories things go into, you rarely need to babysit it. Just sit back and watch it track everything for you.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: gooki on June 06, 2014, 05:12:11 AM
For us, we have an allowance every month. We get $100 on the 1st and 15th. Should I just put $100 outflow in YNAB and be done with it or should I insist on him inputting each single outflow?

Just log the $100 outflow and be down with it.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: catccc on June 06, 2014, 07:11:06 AM
I am a big YNAB fan, and it is very different from mint or yodlee. Mint and yodlee track, and give you historic info. YNAB requires more control and forethought, and you base spending decisions on it; it's not a look back.  Believe me, I thought it was stupid when I first realized it required manual entry, but it is second nature to me now, and it has allowed me to control spending way more than anything else I've used before.  I was a good saver before and YNAB is super charging my progress.

If he likes the idea of it, just have him report to you at the end of each day what was spent, and if it doesn't cause you to spend more, try to have him keep cash transactions down.  You can look up electronic transactions in your online account activity and enter them.  Actually, sometimes I use yodlee to check on transactions in case DH forgets something.  If you are getting close in a category, let him know you are trying to get to x date with only x $ for groceries.

DH and I both "use" YNAB, but really I am the only one that touches the software.  I reconcile our pocket cash, checking, and main CC balance about once a week, and check for transactions from DH periodically (either at the CC site or yodlee), and let him know if we are getting tight on anything.  We have similar spending habits, though, so I don't need to worry about him going out and blowing $100 on shoes and ruining our budget plan for the month.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: homeymomma on June 06, 2014, 07:23:21 AM
Off topic, but I'm more and more surprised how many "women of the household" there are on here who, like me, seem to have sole control/oversee of the household budget. I thought that was more unusual than it clearly is! :)
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: galaxie on June 06, 2014, 07:30:50 AM
Nawhite, I have had Mint for ages but the amount Mint thinks I have and how much I've spent is beyond me!! Example... Let's say a $4000 paycheck came in. Every start of the month I only put the amount that my spreadsheet said we should be spending until the 15th and putting that into the checking account. So for this example let's say $2000. If I have any leftovers from the month before, I always transfer it to savings. Well, Mint will show that I have $2200 in the account (the $200 was from the last month) AND -$800 on spending <---- where did this come from?!?! Not only was Mint not updating properly, it's showing that I have a negative.

It sounds like you don't want the Mint budgets to roll over from month to month, but they are set to roll over.  That's a setting that you can change in all your budget categories.

I've been using Mint for this for years.  I'm like your husband - I hate having little bits of paper around, so I don't want to save receipts or write down transactions.  Sometimes Mint has had rollover glitches, but usually Mint support notices and fixes them reasonably fast.  That small hassle is worth it to me.  Otherwise I would probably do a terrible job of tracking my spending.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Scandium on June 06, 2014, 07:39:13 AM
Yeah, just stop with cash. Pay with credit card (not debit) for everything and Mint will do a decent job of tracking it. I agree I don't quite understand how Mint does cash flow though, it's all over the place. But it will at least tell me where I spent the money.

I really see no reason to use cash, and use an ATM maybe once every 3-4 months. If it's $1.30? I don't care I'm using my credit card and getting the 1% cash back, and I can track it. I feel more guilty spending on the card since I know it will be tracked (even if just by me, not my wife or anything) and I'll have to see that number later. Cash is just a pile of bills I throw at stuff and have little connection to.
Title: Re: YNAB + husband who's not into technology or remembering? What to do?
Post by: Lady from Joppa on June 06, 2014, 01:16:12 PM

1) Yes. Just put the $100 outflow as Husband - allowance and be done with it. It's his allowance, so it doesn't really matter where it spends it or if he tracks it.


This is how we (okay, it's really me) handle my husband's spending money. It's even transferred out of our household checking into his deployment checking account so that he can't spend more than is in his account.

My husband doesn't have anything to do with how our finances are handled except when I ask his opinion on something. He wants me to handle it and trusts me to make the best decision for our family. Sometimes I wish he were more involved but for what we are doing works. His only two requests are that his spending money is deposited into his account on the first of each month and that we use his reward credit card for him to get airline miles. Thankfully he is easy to please. :)