YNAB - July 11, 2013

Thursday, July 11th started out like any other summer day. Lucy had swim lessons in the morning and by the afternoon, I was wasting my time on facebook. Then I came upon a post by Brandon's cousin that would change my life. Okay, that is a little over dramatic. Here is a screen shot but I couldn't capture all of the comments.

Brandon and I decided to buy this budgeting software that his cousin recommended and figured that if it didn't work, it would just be $40 lost (plus, there was a sale and it was 33% off!). And we have wasted $40 on many a stupider thing. Not that we were in any financial crisis. But I managed the day to day finances while Brandon handled our longer term investments and I just wasn't doing that great of a job. We weren't going into debt or anything. We paid our credit card off every month but when the credit card bill was due, we were often surprised by how large it was and it wasn't uncommon for us dip into a savings a little bit to pay it off. And then there was always this unknown about if we could really afford some large purchases which was stressful.

Every once in a while we would sit down to have a budget meeting (and I mean, every few months or more) and I always stressed about it (thinking about how much money we didn't have - remember, Brandon was laid off from his job in May 2012). I actually usually felt better after budget meetings because I was more aware of our finances but although we vowed to have them more regularly, it just didn't happen. We signed up for Mint.com but then never looked at it. And we used spreadsheets and then they were outdated because our finances were always changing. Our problem was those irregular expenses that just come up every once in a while - like new tires for the car or some house repair. My sister-in-law was using the envelope method which I heard was very effective but seemed inconvenient to have to carry around so much cash. Plus, I really love using my credit card and getting points.

YNAB was described to us almost like an electronic envelope system where you can still use credit cards and just be more aware of what you are spending money on. So it is like a spreadsheet but better. It's hard to explain unless you actually use it. Fortunately, Brandon really took to it and now takes care of all the finances. I am involved but I should probably learn to use this software but Brandon is really good at it. And knowing exactly where your money is going is really empowering as most people described who actually keep track of their finances. It is a really flexible tool and interesting to look at over time where you are spending your money, thereby letting you figure out where you can save more money and cut back. For example, in September, we spent $237.32 on gas. It blew us away because Brandon works just 10 minutes away and my driving consists of going to the gym, dropping off Lucy to pre-K, going shopping, and visiting my sister. But those little trips add up and especially, we were using Brandon's dad's gas-guzzling Ford Expedition every once in a while (or so we thought). So in October, we were just more mindful of how we drove around and Brandon rode his bike to work and even dropped Lucy off at pre-K with the bike trailer and our fuel for the month was only $86.71. Isn't that amazing?

There is always room for improvement in our budget to find ways to spend less and save more. Thanks to Brandon and his research on-line (he likes reading the blog Mr. Money Mustache), we have switched from our expensive AT&T cell phone provider of paying over $100/month for cell phone service to $20/month from Airvoice Wireless. I was skeptical at first but it has worked out great and can't believe that we are saving over $80/month (which ended up going to life insurance premiums which we just started). We weren't under contract and I don't have a smart phone and we don't really use our phones for internet so it's pretty bare bones but it works for us. Now if only I can get our internet bill from Comcast a little lower...

Anyway, just had a give a shout out on my blog to YNAB (and the BYU graduate founder of it) for really working. I was in no way compensated for my post about it - just wanted to let people know that we found something great.