Hi All,
I am getting started with YNAB, and I am excited to see such a large forum of folks sharing information. I came here when I started trying to use the budgeting tools in Mint, and came up short, and found the tools limiting.
Basically, I am a single dad, who is $40K in debt between a credit card, debt to my lawyer from my divorce(4 years ago), and a student loan from 2002. I spend too much, and I think its a psychological problem I need to fix.
My goal is to be completely debt free by my 40th birthday, which is August 2015.
I think I can do it if I live in budget, while I work in sales, and use my commissions to pay the debt. I will also be working to being down my monthly expenses, which now total $6500/month.
I downloaded and started importing all of my expenditures for October and November. After some playing around, I was able to set up a CSV file download from my bank, to import the last two months. I know its not suggested, but I did this for a before and after snapshot. From here on I will be using YNAB daily to import my expenses.
What I over spend money on, this is the embarrassing part;
1. Cabs - $415 for November - I take cabs everywhere and don't have a car. Part of this is expensable, but I can easily lower it to $100/month with taking mostly public transportation and cabs only for work.
2. Clothes - $850 for November. Enough said.
3. Restaurants - $680 for November - this includes lunches and dates, but dates are drinks usually. I eat out way too much, and carelessly spend on expensive food.
4. Books & Info - $550 for November - this includes Amazon, music, online courses.
My one and only goal now;
Come in on budget for December - $6500
It will take a lot of self discipline, but I will do this but using YNAB daily and tracking my progress. I will also be taking the courses offered, and reading ghe message boards. This is a big step for me and something I should have done years ago(15 yr student loan debt ugh huh), but its what I need to do in order to be solvent, and to give my child a future. I will be using this thread as a progress log.
Any comments welcome! Thanks.
I am getting started with YNAB, and I am excited to see such a large forum of folks sharing information. I came here when I started trying to use the budgeting tools in Mint, and came up short, and found the tools limiting.
Basically, I am a single dad, who is $40K in debt between a credit card, debt to my lawyer from my divorce(4 years ago), and a student loan from 2002. I spend too much, and I think its a psychological problem I need to fix.
My goal is to be completely debt free by my 40th birthday, which is August 2015.
I think I can do it if I live in budget, while I work in sales, and use my commissions to pay the debt. I will also be working to being down my monthly expenses, which now total $6500/month.
I downloaded and started importing all of my expenditures for October and November. After some playing around, I was able to set up a CSV file download from my bank, to import the last two months. I know its not suggested, but I did this for a before and after snapshot. From here on I will be using YNAB daily to import my expenses.
What I over spend money on, this is the embarrassing part;
1. Cabs - $415 for November - I take cabs everywhere and don't have a car. Part of this is expensable, but I can easily lower it to $100/month with taking mostly public transportation and cabs only for work.
2. Clothes - $850 for November. Enough said.
3. Restaurants - $680 for November - this includes lunches and dates, but dates are drinks usually. I eat out way too much, and carelessly spend on expensive food.
4. Books & Info - $550 for November - this includes Amazon, music, online courses.
My one and only goal now;
Come in on budget for December - $6500
It will take a lot of self discipline, but I will do this but using YNAB daily and tracking my progress. I will also be taking the courses offered, and reading ghe message boards. This is a big step for me and something I should have done years ago(15 yr student loan debt ugh huh), but its what I need to do in order to be solvent, and to give my child a future. I will be using this thread as a progress log.
Any comments welcome! Thanks.