How To Budget + Save Money (Envelopes, YNAB & More)

[@MsSherrydarling]

I kind of had an aha moment when you said that making more money won't help until you know how to manage the money you have!! So true, it's like the universe telling you that when you've learned how to manage this amount of money well, you will get more. The law of attraction at work? Thanks for the video! I will be moving around my expenses to get them in a better order and under the category they need to be for me. Thanks.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Boom! You're totally right Sherry! I agree that it's the law of attraction at work. Get your house in order and then things can grow, but you don't want too much if you can't care for a little. I really appreciate you watching and I'm excited for you to get things in better order! Good luck Sherry :)

[@josephhogue]

Love that this works for any budgeting strategy from envelopes to some of the budgeting apps.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Absolutely! Thanks Joseph. Somehow I just saw this comment, maybe YT didn't notify me. But yes, that's the goal, for it to work no matter what :)

[@PidasianHippie]

Kari hit the nail on the head. Once you get in an extreme budget mode you are very adept at spending versus saving. I still budget but am very comfortable with how much I spend in each category. This was a great video. Thank you for sharing it.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Absolutely! Kari said it perfectly. So glad you enjoyed the video :) Thanks for watching as always!

[@jamiegibbs9017]

I used the envelope system about 25 years ago but it bothered me to have all that cash in my home so tried excel and moved to apps to help plan a budget. I like the rewards from using credit cards to earn money back but didn't like paying for current month expenses in addition to what I had already spent (I pay off cards in full every month to avoid the interest) and decided I needed to make a change. First, I took a small hit to my savings to bring myself "current" then I opened up a couple extra checking/savings accounts at my bank. When I get my paycheck I sit down that day and transfer money for my fixed and long term goals to those designated accounts. What is left over is for my "other" expenses. As I make purchases during the remainder of that paycheck cycle, I move the transaction amount on a mobile app for my bank from my "Pay check" account to my "Bill Pay" account. Life changing! I like the apps but this has made it a one stop shop for managing my money using my bank account.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Love this Jamie!! Seriously, this is great. My friend Paula Pant from affordanything.com calls this method the "anti-budget budget" and that's what she does. It works really well for tons of people. I'm so happy that you've found a system that works for you and allows you to hit those long-term goals because you're working on them first. Thanks so much for watching and for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it and I think it helps others to see what works for different folks. :)

[@adamj2683]

YNAB is the same concept, but much more powerful. It's a simple interface that lets you create new categories for your money at the click of a button. It has automatic importing of all your transactions as well as manual importing. It has a mobile app as well.

[@RonJohn63]

6:42 Saving for car insurance and other _known_ short term expenses is sometimes referred to as *deferred spending.* I think that's a good term.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Absolutely, I like that term a lot. Thanks RonJohn63!

[@labrat8876]

Thanks, Nick, very informative! I think the physical envelope method is best for me other than what I pay online.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Lab Rat that’s great! Physical envelopes work really well for a lot of people. I don’t like them for me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work for you. Glad to hear it :)

[@mirla838]

Sorry 3 years later, how do you track your cash purchases.... I'm trying to go cash so I don't overspend my variables

[@BradLongCo]

Great video, Nick! Found you from the ChooseFI podcast. My wife and I are considering moving to the Chattanooga area. Hope to connect with you!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Nice! We love chattanooga. It’s a great city. Thanks for watching! :)

[@BradLongCo]

@@mappedoutmoney Hopefully, we'll see you at a ChooseFI Chatty MeetUp?

[@mappedoutmoney]

Zero Debt Coach well, we don’t live in chattanooga anymore. We hit the road in our RV two years ago. But yeah it would be fun to go to a meetup if we’re passing through!

[@waschosen-]

I want to understand how to resolve the following situations: If encountering "You assigned more than you have", what would you recommend for the following two approaches? (1) Adjust the assigned items for each month to ensure the Ready to assign value is not less than 0 (allowing some items to be overspent) (2) Keep the "You assigned more than you have" value as it is, even if it is negative, without any adjustments, with the goal of finding ways to earn money to cover the over budget amount.

[@jasons_favorite_hobbies]

Love your videos. Keep them coming.🐒

[@mappedoutmoney]

Vintage Bitsndodads so glad you’re enjoying them! Thanks for watching :)

[@NC-tt4gc]

Pretty embarrassing question...but how would I go about using YNAB with an overdrawn checking account? Trying to get out of what feels like a constant negative balance in my checking account but I feel very overwhelmed.

[@beermilkshake]

Hi there, this was very helpful thanks. I'd be curious to see what kind of video you'd make if helping people determine WHAT to spend their money on. If it's based upon values , then there's a system in there somewhere too, and I'm sure you'd do a damn good job explaining it!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey! I did something similar with this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4bUfWd_fJtrb9k where I showed a values-based system. But I'd like to go more in depth and do some more videos on it. Thanks for the encouragement! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos :)

[@overground5551]

Hey Nick, thanks for another great upload. I looked through the comments below to make sure this hasn't already been answered. So currently I'm looking at the different budgeting software that's out there to see what's available. You mention in the video that Mint doesn't work as a budgeting tool, but when I Google around, Mint seems to be lumped into that category of "budgeting apps." I also looked into it a bit more and it seems that there is a "goals" feature that can be used in Mint. I'm still an amateur when it comes to the pros and cons of each software, so would you be willing to tell me how it is that Mint in 2019 wouldn't count as a tool that can give you a map to achieve your goals, but YNAB does?

[@rachelspohn]

Question: we too have a “Misc Unexpected” category, and I’m wondering how you handle transactions. (We use YNAB) Currently, if something unexpected comes up what we do is move money from the Misc Unexpected category To the correct spending category so the reporting is accurate. This means our miscellaneous unexpected category has so far and never had a single transaction inside of it… We just use the money that we budget there as needed to move to other categories that we may have forgotten about when things come up. How do you handle it? Do you categorize an unexpected event to the unexpected category? Or do you categorize it in the appropriate spending category for better reporting? Sometimes this category covers little things like if my husband over spends past his spending money allotment because he had a late shift at work and needed to buy a drink from the vending machine… I will categorize that three dollars under his discretionary spending category but move the money to cover it from the unexpected category.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey Rachel! We do exactly what you do with one exception :) Sometimes we actually do have some small purchases that just don't fit anywhere else. So we do categorize them as "unexpected" instead of adding a whole brand new category just for that one small thing. If it's a big purchase or something regular but we don't have a category that fits we will add a new one. But you're spot on - for the sake of reporting it's best to categorize to the correct place and then move money from the unexpected category to wherever you need it. Happy budgeting!

[@rachelspohn]

Nick True - MappedOutMoney awesome thanks for the reply. I’m trying to keep my categories as simple as possible so I think I will do the same thing… If I don’t already have a category for it, I will just stick it in the Misc Unexpected!:)

[@mappedoutmoney]

@@rachelspohn Bingo :) We do the same. Glad that helped!

[@morganechilders]

Hi Nick! I'm a new watcher of your channel and am already pretty obsessed. I had a question about YNAB; I am a cash envelope person for my variable expenses and was wondering, would I create Unlinked Accounts for each cash envelope or would I just list them in my budget as categories? I confused myself last night trying to move my money in YNAB from my checking to my cash envelopes 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@mappedoutmoney]

Ooooooo. That’s is tough. Let me lay out a couple of options. All of which could work if you’re dillegent. Option 1. - create 1 cash account that’s unlinked - track ALL cash in that account - create a group called cash envelopes - put all envelopes as Individual categories to that group - make sure the total available for that group always matches the total in the cash unlinked account (see my savings account YNAB video for an example of something similar) Option 2 - use unlinked “asset” accounts - these would all be tracking accounts - setup an individual asset account for each envelope. - don’t track spending on budget and instead just track the asset accounts Option 3 - same as option 1 just use multiple accounts AND categories. Personally I would go with option 1. But there’s a few ways you could do it. Hope that helps. Let me know if it doesn’t!

[@morganechilders]

@@mappedoutmoney thanks so much! I played around with it more this morning and actually went with the 3rd option you suggested. I wanted to be able to track moving the cash from my bank acct to my envelopes AND track spending the cash from my envelopes, so the 3rd option will work the best I think. Will definitely be a dedicated follower of your channel!

[@mappedoutmoney]

@@morganechilders Thanks Morgan :) Really appreciate it and reach out if there's ever anything I can do to help!

[@andreidorinn]

Awesome!

[@vitorgabriel15]

This is an amazing content, thank you so much for sharing it!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Thanks! I’m so glad you’ve found the videos helpful :) Best of luck with your budget!

[@eliseb4896]

Hey Nick :) What would you do if you had irregular hours and were paid weekly? Not sure how to configure YNAB/overall budget to suit these circumstances. Thanks for the great video!

[@fieryinferno88]

My wife and I just started using YNAB at the beginning of October and we both work jobs that are variable income. She is a massage therapist and I am a carpenter. We get paid on opposite weeks so we as a family basically get paid weekly. What we do is use YNAB to set goals for different categories and then when we get paid we sit down and start putting money in different categories. For instance, our mortgage comes out the Monday after my wife gets paid. When I get paid we have just over a week until the next mortgage payment but we still budget half a mortgage payment from my paycheck. Mostly we look at it in this order, weekly expenses, monthly expenses, yearly expenses. Most important to budget for is what NEEDS to get paid in the next 7 days. Electric bill due on Wednesday, we need to put money towards it. Water bill (ours come every 4 months) due in 3 months, we try to throw a few bucks at it every week but if one paycheck is short then it becomes a temporary low priority. Our costco membership costs us $67.80 a year so we set a goal of 5.65 a month to be able to pay that when it comes due. We usually fluctuate small but if you fluctuate more dramatically, then on your bigger paychecks start funding (as nick and ynab call it) essentials for the month first. And use the smaller paychecks to fund monthly contributions for the yearly expenses, or the less essential. Ie. Eating out. Keep watching Nick's videos on ynab. He is a great teacher and once you get the hang of it and get used to using ynab to budget, it is a great tool. We went from over spending every month and racking up 30000 in consumer debt, to paying off 200 of debt every week. Also it took us 2 days and 5 hours to set up ynab the first time, filling nick step by step. But every week we get faster and faster. Now we can budget for the week in 20 min or less. Just keep at it. :)

[@FoyLo]

Great video, once again! Would it be possible to get a text version of your extended list of categories ?

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey Louis! Sure. I added them all to a google sheet for you. Here's the link! docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1znvVc_a8onW9veOyh63gl2KA72Yn7vESggp0m2aM0wI/edit?usp=sharing Good luck!

[@FoyLo]

Thanks!

[@mappedoutmoney]

No problem!

[@leahgoldstein7971]

Hi Nick, ❤️your videos, but I'm fairly overwhelmed just setting up multiple budgets as a new YNAB subscriber. Any chance you do consults to help sort thru how my budgets should be set up initially?

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey Leah! Yes, I have 1:1 consulting where we hop on a video call so I can see your screen and we'll work together through your situation. Here's the link to learn more: mappedoutmoney.com/ynab-coaching/ I also a less expensive group program that we run every couple of months. The next one is going to launch at the end of June and run for 5 weeks during July :)

[@leahgoldstein7971]

@@mappedoutmoney Ok, I see the link. Thank you! I have a personal, business (self-employed) and then a rental property, so I have initially tried setting up 3 budgets. So would the session cover all 3 or just 1?

[@mappedoutmoney]

@@leahgoldstein7971 We'd talk about any and all of the budgets you want in that session. A lot of my 1:1 clients use multiple YNAB budgets due to real estate investments and businesses. So you've got a very similar setup to others I work with :) Since it's by the hour, we'll just cover as much as we can across any budget you'd like help with. Also, note that it includes email access for further questions. So I'm happy to answer any follow-up questions you have via email.

[@leahgoldstein7971]

@@mappedoutmoney Great! Sounds like a smart plan. I'm sure you are booked all ready for today, (although I could be available if you are) but looking at the calendar for other dates, do you have any morning appointments available next week? (I only see afternoon available)

[@mappedoutmoney]

​@@leahgoldstein7971 Sure! I have a full day booked on Monday and Wednesday morning, but I opened up some times on Tuesday and Thursday. See if one of those will work for you :)

[@waschosen-]

If I have overspending items every month, when I receive money, should I first cover previous months' overspending items or cover the overspending items of the current month? Is there any difference?

[@waschosen-]

Using this month's income to cover next month expenses If I pay my March expenses based on the income I received in February, let say I received my salary on the last day of February, which was recorded as income in February. In Budget page, there's balance to be assigned in February. In the end, I discovered that the total available Budget for March was shown as 0. But actually I do have money that I can use in March. Please advise how I can resolve this? I tried pre-input the salary that I will receive at the end of March, but the 'Ready to Assign' amount for March was still 0. Therefore, I tried to post the money received on 28 Feb into 1 March, trying to use February's salary to cover March's expenses, but doing so would cause the records in YNAB and the bank account to be inconsistent.

[@lisawilliams6866]

Plan or budget is just telling your money what to do, instead of allowing your money to dictate to you. When people tell me they "can't" budget, I ask them if their plan is working for them. Generally, they say no. Then I gently correct them by saying they "won't" budget. It's two teams playing a game with no coaches to call plays. That method doesn't work either. It's food for thought for them. Less scary for them.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Totally! You're absolutely right. It's simply just making a plan and deciding how to best use your money to do what you want to do. Thanks for watching and commenting Lisa!

[@maggiem1404]

Is there a set amount that you recommend people to save in their Emergency Savings?

[@christfollower122491]

Hey nick, what do you do if there is left over money at the end of month in your spending budget to you let it roll over and save or do you move it elsewhere

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey Collins! Good question. SO you can do really whatever you want. Typically it boils down to one of three things. 1. Let it roll over and build more in that category 2. Use it to pay down debt 3. Use it increase savings towards a goal I've done all three at different times depending on what's a priority at the moment and also what category has leftover. If it's my electricity bill for example, I might let that money roll over because the weather might change next month, so it's nice to have a little cushion. Same for groceries. Other times, we might be aggressively working towards a specific savings goal and so any leftovers get put there. For example, over the next year, Hanna and I are going to be more aggressive on saving for a house downpayment. So we'll be using more leftovers to increase those savings. Hope that makes sense! Thanks for watching and comment :)

[@christfollower122491]

Nick True - MappedOutMoney that’s perfect thanks so much and your videos have been really helpful

[@mappedoutmoney]

Awesome. I'm so glad to hear that. I appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment. It means a ton.

[@TheCoffeeConciergeNetwork]

Where your emojis at in the sample budget, Nick!?

[@mappedoutmoney]

hahaha, dude! You're totally right. I need to up my emoji game in the budget. What was I thinking!?

[@TheCoffeeConciergeNetwork]

There's your idea for the next video. How to add emojis to your YNAB budget to make it SO much more fun :)

[@mappedoutmoney]

I feel a good collab in the works with that idea ;) For real though, we should do a video on how to make good coffee on a budget.

[@TheCoffeeConciergeNetwork]

Deal! As long as no Keurigs are involved. hahahaha

[@mappedoutmoney]

😂😂😂We'll make sure to keep those out lol

[@martinfarrow2825]

i own a business how could you use ynab for business ?

[@mappedoutmoney]

Good question Martin. So I use YNAB for my business. I have a business budget and a separate personal budget which is what I encourage. The method I use is called "profit first". It's a book by a guy named Michael called Profit First and it's phenomenal. I highly reccommend it. I use YNAB to implement that system and set it up. It works great for me! I'm hoping to do more videos on using ynab for business soon, just haven't gotten there yet!

[@martinfarrow2825]

Thanks for the reply nick I actually just read profit first it was really good. Look forward to the business/YNAB overview . Watching from the uk love the channel.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Awesome! Glad to hear that. It's a truly great book. Thanks Martin, glad some folks over in the UK are enjoying the videos :)

[@camillacoates6200]

Hey Nick! Thanks for your videos. What is the best way to handle a bi-weekly mortgage payment in YNAB. I will have a couple of months with three payments per month. Should I make a "long term expense" category to save up for those payments?

[@mappedoutmoney]

Camilla Coates hey! That’s a great question. So you have a couple options. 1) yes create a long term expenses category to save for those separately. Then when the 3 payment month comes, send the money from the long term mortgage payment category to the normal mortgage payment category you use. Then you can make the payment. 2) you can also just save a little extra each month directly in the mortgage payment category and let the available amount build up over time. Then when the 3 payment month comes along, you have it there. Let me know if one of those two ways feel like it will work for you. :) Thanks for watching Camilla!