YNAB Budget With Me | Ernie’s May Budget

Ernie is joining the YNAB Budget With Me crew! He’ll be budgeting his April paychecks and talking through his budgeting thought process.

[@lockenlinna]

This video is everything a Budget Nerd can dream of 😍 Love it, thank you! So interesting and helpful to see a real budget in action.

[@clurdelune]

Thanks for sharing this Ernie. My parents both come from families that used money for guilt and control, so I understand where they were coming from, but they NEVER talked about money with me or my siblings growing up, and still won’t. As a young adult now, I’ve been learning how to budget over the past couple years and I can’t shake this nagging feeling like I’m missing something important. It’s so so helpful to see “a real adult”, time-tested budget get broken down in this much detail, and it’s really built up my budgeting confidence. Thank you!

[@emilycrowe4625]

Great reminder that I can look at "average spent" instead of flipping back and forth from the budget and the reports. This was fun to watch - thanks for living in the discomfort of overspent categories and a full RTA for us!

[@Ellenplans]

Would love if this became a regular monthly video! It’s so helpful to see the thought process behind your budget Ernie 💖

[@reneegoudreauaudio]

I could listen to you talk about money all day! You guys are so helpful, down to earth and above all HONEST with us and that's exactly what I have learned when it comes to money, just being honest with myself and others has changed my life! Thank you YNAB and Ernie

[@jennivanhart3016]

That was fun Ernie. Our family has two categories, one is called Little Adventures - which pays for museums, pool admissions, treats, park admissions etc, and we have Big Adventures which pays for vacations, concert tickets (like Queen - squee!), theme parks, etc. The adventures must be FAMILY though, the cut off is probably around $200 for a family (4 peeps) adventure to be considered little, anything bigger has to be seriously considered before dipping into our Big Adventures balance which just builds up monthly.

[@jenmcclung5747]

oh that is a great idea!

[@gabriellebradley3566]

This was very cool to watch Ernie. Typically I just listen to the Budget Nerds podcast so it was nice to actually see a budget and your thought process. I recall you and Ben mentioning a few episodes back about having a “Next Month” category and just budgeting one time for the whole month. I just tried that for the first time and I really enjoyed it! It definitely cut down on having to rework when I needed to prioritize one thing over another!

[@jenmcclung5747]

This was amazing thank you so much! I can't believe how much I learned just on navigating YNAB itself - I had never used that "Average Spent" Category. Going to use that for groceries and gas immediately! Really appreciate it!

[@ksk881]

I really enjoyed this, Ernie! I always watch you and Ben, so this was different at only 30 minutes. I could listen to your budget talks for hours!

[@stoneybrook57]

More of these please! These are my favorite kinds of videos, thank you!

[@irisymontalvo]

Interesting. It helps us to see different budget scenarios. I will start making some changes to my budget 😊.

[@amycade4606]

This was great! Thanks Ernie! I love the category for "Family Fun". We have a young family and it has been hard deciding what category to pull activities with the kids from. This would solve our problems.

[@dakotadrone]

Very interesting to see! Now tell Ben it's his turn. Who else would love to see Ben do a Budget With Me?

[@kclark7103]

Love, love, love this! Thank you for sharing, Ernie!

[@cincyteacher1]

I like the idea of using the average spent category and if it creates a reserve in a category, keep it to pay for future months. I'm going to try that

[@christinesmith4217]

Thank you, Ernie!

[@MariLarkin]

I LOVED this Ernie!!!! I've been using YNAB for years and I learned so much just by watching you go through this! Gotta love Budget Nerds---you and Ben are the best!! Thanks!

[@staceybulleigh8408]

I LOVE all your videos. You and Ben are the absolute best. You have the best demeanors and are EXCELLENT teachers. So fun to watch! This video is my favorite! Your budget is AWESOME!!!

[@angeljuarez93]

This was awesome to watch ❤ thanks so much for sharing your budget and process 😊

[@melissakinard4324]

Awesome episode Ernie! Thanks for sharing your budget!

[@JacobEsbomahalli]

I would love if this became a regular video series. So insightful. Thank you!

[@justinlindholm2679]

Hey Ernie, I have a question about assigning the "Average Spent" to your grocery category. If it is based on the last 12 months, how does that work when you do a fresh start every year, because you don't have that information for the last 12 months anymore?

[@imomushi7062]

Thank you for asking that, I really was wondering about that, as well. :o

[@richmond0602]

My question as well!!

[@YNABofficial]

I didn't do a fresh start this year! I wanted to see how it felt having more data, and in this case it was really helpful. If I had made a fresh start, I would have looked at the average in the old budget through December, assigned that amount in January of the new budget and then gone from there. Hope that helps! ~Ernie

[@pamwesterheide5470]

Wow, this was very helpful. I had a lot of "I didn't know you could do that", "That will save some time" and "Ah, I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks, and I'd love to see more.

[@bwfidler]

This was really helpful, Ernie. Thank you for opening your budget with us. Watching you budget is almost as much fun as doing my own (almost). Also, glad to know you’re still using the Durables and Consumables categories!

[@YNABofficial]

The key to a good category name-when your non-budget nerd partner understands what it's for! Thanks again, Brian! ~Ernie

[@bwfidler]

@@YNABofficial Well said!

[@kjholthe]

This was very helpful and encouraging. Thank you!

[@minimalmiss]

I really appreciate this, thanks for sharing!

[@lynnpayne5107]

Thanks for the video. I've used YNAB for several years now and learned a couple of new things and got a couple of ideas for my budget. I'd love to see something like this again! :)

[@nurh6538]

I’ve only started YNAB a month and a half ago, but man do I enjoy budgeting now! Thanks Ernie!

[@YNABofficial]

Who knew it could be so fun?! ~Ernie

[@oknenm67]

Thank you Ernie for sharing your budget. This was so helpful to me.

[@BethAnnesBest]

This was really helpful to see your thought process. I also learned some features of ynab that I didnt realize what they did!

[@liescomein]

We need more of these with YNAB team!

[@lisacorbett4984]

Thank you, Ernie! I appreciate you doing this video! I have been waiting for one of the experts to walk us through their own budgets. It provides so much context and help in seeing how others set up and assign to their categories. I hope to see more videos like this one in the future.😊

[@YNABofficial]

Lisa, I'm doing another one tonight (June 1, 7:30pm EST) over on our Instagram account (@youneedabudget)! I'll be assigning May paychecks to June. Hope to see you there! ~Ernie

[@lisacorbett4984]

@YNAB Yay! I'm so excited! Thank you, Ernie.

[@saralep]

Thank you for pointing out 'Average Spent' all this time and I have never used it. That changes today!!!

[@johannaholz]

Thank you for this Ernie! I've been avidly listening to the podcast and going through ALL of the episodes while I run, and will soon run out of episodes to listen so I might have to migrate to watching older episodes on youtube. I have been ynabing since 2015, so it' s been a while, but I always learn new things and have found renewed motivation while listening to you guys. One big questions I can't seem to find the answer to is, when you are releasing the money from the holding category for one month ahead in order to budget for that month, how do you "release"? This might be a dumb question but is it as simple as moving money from the holding category to Ready to Assign? This video doesn't show the previous step, it starts with all the money already in Ready to Assign. thanks so much!

[@YNABofficial]

Hi Johanna! Hopefully I showed how to release the funds in the Rollover video yesterday, but you're absolutely right-I click on the amount available in my Next Month category and then move it to Ready To Assign. ~Ernie

[@staceybulleigh8408]

This was SO helpful to me. It answered 100 questions for me!

[@gabiboschetti2590]

this was so insightful!!! thanks Ernie ✨✨

[@pollywave]

late to the party, but that sniffpark idea for my dog @ 19:07...🤯 LOVE IT!

[@Tesla-Cannon]

Ridge is a good dog name. We need photos!

[@YNABofficial]

There are some photos back in the pet episode! ~Ernie

[@keithhalliday4700]

Thanks Ernie. It was a very helpful session.

[@carolea7158]

To go along with the filter idea for the budget, is there a way to get a sort by amount available? I want to see which categories have the most money assigned to help me "find" money in my budget.

[@brandijones2007]

At the end of the month, will you show us reconciling/closing out the month??

[@joshuamorse3561]

This was incredibly helpful! I was not at all using my true expense categories like this and it was stressing me out because I didn't have enough money to fund all of my true expenses every month. (Maybe I missed an instruction video on how to do them...) Thank you for going through this! I changed my budget this month after watching this video and listening to "Emergency Fund vs. Month Ahead" and everything feels MUCH better to me.

[@YNABofficial]

So glad everything feels better now! Happy budgeting! ~Ernie

[@user-yz3ns8yv6g]

Michelle from Eagan, MN

[@christinamunoz3170]

This was so helpful! Thanks!

[@Natazavrik]

Thank you so much! This is so helpful!

[@rivasoucie]

You can put your printer ink into Consumables!

[@kristin1847]

Average spent! Brilliant! I'm going to start doing that for water/natural gas (they are combined in my city), electric, gas, and groceries!

[@kristiwahlers4003]

I’m new- from Carlisle, IA

[@Metzyify]

really enjoyed it, thanks a lot

[@nosirrahm]

I always remember your name but I always lean towards “Bert and Ernie” (poor Ben). 😂

[@YNABofficial]

I think a lot of people lean towards Bert and Ernie 🤣 ~Ernie

[@gregj9391]

State Farm will stiff you when it's time to pay your claim. Paid them premiums for 25 years and it was like pulling teeth to get my full house flood claim paid. Dropped them like a hot potato and went with Farm Bureau.

[@CatherineSimmons]

If you're budgeting a month ahead, would you be allocating for June right now? Or, does having the money ready to go at the end of the month mean you're a month ahead? I noticed you age of money is over 100 days, how did you get to that level?

[@virginiasmith3558]

Lawrence, Kansas

[@JDFrancis]

This is good stuff. Just out of curiosity, are there any good Budget Nerd videos on how best to move categories around or change categories for expenses. For example, right now I have one Utilities category, but I think it might be beneficial to break everything out into separate categories. Is there a way to easily do that for future and past transactions?

[@YNABofficial]

I don't think we have a video showing the mechanics of how to do this, but I think using the Bulk Edit options would probably be the best option. support.ynab.com/en_us/how-to-edit-and-delete-transactions-BJG4oS1s#action ~Ernie

[@Metzyify]

Will you post the one from June which was done on Instagram on KZbin as well? I cant watch these live as I live overseas.

[@YNABofficial]

We don't have a recording of the Instagram live-sorry! But I'm sure we'll do another live Budget With Me in the future! ~Ernie

[@Brianne-qu4ie]

Ernie…have you looked into Hp Instant Ink? It’s the best thing I’ve done to squash the stupid printer ink debacle and whenever you mention it I want to mention this! I have the lowest plan which is $1/month for 10 pages - print more? It’ll charge you an extra $1/10 pages. Out of ink? Ink magically shows up in your mail box. Never pay for an ink cartridge again. It’s the best thing! Print more than 10 pages? There’s other plans too that are way cheaper than stupid ink!!!

[@YNABofficial]

My wife bought one of those Epson printers where the ink lasts forever. We print A LOT, and it has proven to be worth the investment! ~Ernie

[@marylpn1]

@@YNABofficialI would love to know which model printer you bought, my HP is on its last leg

[@YNABofficial]

@@marylpn1 It's the Epson ET-3760. It's been really good for us! ~Ernie

[@marylpn1]

@@YNABofficial Thanks, Ernie! Love your videos. I continue to watch and learn everything YNAB :)

[@wimduncker9720]

New Zealand

[@elizabethcencetti8825]

Liz in France

[@StephenZipprich]

At 10:24, how do you get that upcoming bill message in there? Is your electric bill linked with YNAB?

[@YNABofficial]

Those are scheduled, recurring transactions! And they can be used with linked and unlinked accounts. support.ynab.com/scheduled-transactions-a-guide-BygrAIFA9 ~Ernie

[@StephenZipprich]

@@YNABofficial oh that's awesome, thank you! Another new thing to play around with in YNAB.

[@josecantu8195]

How do you include the interest from the credit card payments?

[@YNABofficial]

Hi Jose! We recommend creating an Interest category in your budget and then treating the Interest charge like a normal bill. So when your interest charge comes through, you categorize it to Interest, and you should be covered! You might also like our Credit Cards in YNAB video for more information. You can find it in the top playlist of our KZbin page. Hope that helps! 🙂 - Ben M 🎨

[@josecantu8195]

@@YNABofficial It did! Thank you! 🙏

[@gMagicScott]

1:31 - Stream Starts

[@brandijones2007]

You’ll add May income to your “next month” category, right? How will you then access it next month to budget for expenses? Since it’s already allocated this month? (Do I make sense?! Lol)

[@YNABofficial]

The money I was assigning in May was from our April paychecks. So then the May paychecks will go in the Next Month category for June. On May 31, I will move those funds in the Next Month category back to Ready to Assign (you can move them whenever you want-I just like doing it on the last day of the month so the money is waiting for me when I wake up on the first 😃). The next month category is one of two ways you can assign current money into a future month. support.ynab.com/en_us/assigning-money-in-future-months-a-guide-HJidy13C5 ~Ernie

[@brandijones2007]

@@YNABofficial Tysm!!

[@GrantValdes]

I'm confused... How can you be funding the current month's necessities while having an age of money of 112 days? Shouldn't you be funding a few months ahead, broadly speaking?

[@YNABofficial]

I prefer to be only one month ahead and then put everything else towards our savings priorities. Some folks would prefer to be 2-3 months ahead before saving for goals. That's the great thing about Rule 4-there are multiple ways to implement it! ~Ernie

[@GrantValdes]

​​@@YNABofficial've only been doing YNAB for six weeks and have an age of money of 35 days and rising. There's some anxiety about "hitting the wall" there. It's interesting to see that if I rebalanced more towards home repairs etc. and not the month after next's groceries, age of money wouldn't necessarily suffer.

[@jaydee-222]

I pay more than you for car insurance with one driver, one 12 y/o car, completely clean driving history, Also with State Farm…!!??

[@erinkerbs6789]

What is sniff spot? 😂

[@YNABofficial]

They're private dog parks, and they're so awesome! www.sniffspot.com/listings ~Ernie