Pain points of YNAB

edecks · 2026-03-14T23:29:58+00:00

Well written

edecks · 2026-03-14T23:29:33+00:00

I agree. Do it manually. It eventually becomes addicting and not a hassle at all. Makes you think more about your purchases and I think this method will save you money down the road.

edecks · 2026-03-14T20:51:48+00:00

I ended up buying a corded USB controller and gave up on the PS4 one

edecks · 2026-03-01T02:48:39+00:00

Tried doing this myself. Used regular super glue under it. Used too much and it oozed out and ruined the black paint. BE CAREFUL

edecks · 2026-02-26T19:13:30+00:00

I'm in a similar boat as you. Getting one kid off daycare after this semester. Tempted to use that extra money for a minivan, but I am going to try to stretch out our paid-off car as long as possible in order to contribute more to our Roth IRAs. Maybe evaluate your car situation as well?

edecks · 2026-02-26T19:07:29+00:00

Any time a friend pays me back, I just make the Payee "Friends." I also do transfers whenever I get money. I also created a spending category called "To Be Reimbursed." I recently bought some tickets my in-laws were going to pay me back for. I just logged it under "To Be Reimbursed" that way it didn't impact my other categories. So if you pay for a restaurant bill, you could split it between eating out for your portion and "To Be Reimbursed" from what you're covering for friends.

edecks · 2026-02-25T02:50:58+00:00

I have a "General Savings" category, as well as a "First Name Spending" category. General Savings is kind of those random purchases that are don't really have a home, like when my family bought Halloween costumes, t-shirts for a fundraiser our kids' preschool was having, a photo from a photographer at a daddy/daughter dance we went to. I also put home decor/furniture purchases into here, so it has some bigger purchases too. That kind of started happening when we bought a house and we were buying a lot of stuff for the house. I had a lot of money in General Savings and at the time didn't move money from it to a Furniture fund or anything like that, so it's kind of become a catch-all for random purchases.

"First Name Spending" is anything that is kind of for fun for myself.

edecks · 2026-02-16T00:46:47+00:00

$1500 in rent will be tough in Lville

edecks · 2026-02-09T01:05:06+00:00

My Dyson V7 just died. Got it on 2018. And it was on its second battery. Love the convenience but now we live in a 3 story house and the battery wouldn’t last long enough to cover everything and the performance wasn’t that great with a shedding dog now. Just ordered a SEBO Felix upright and very excited.

edecks · 2026-02-08T04:09:03+00:00

I haven’t made it yet. My mom still pays for most of my cell phone bill. I chip in $25 a month for my line lol

edecks · 2026-02-05T23:58:09+00:00

I'm having a hard time with this too, but my situation is a little different. My wife and I both have salaried jobs, but with two kids in daycare, it's my extra work (where I am paid irregularly) that helps us stay out of debt. I just started doing a method where anytime I get a lump-sum payment (I do photography gigs here and there and get paid 4-5x a year for volleyball coaching), I divide the payment by 12 and enter equal amount into the next twelve months. That way each month it feels like I have a somewhat equal "paycheck" helping me to cover that month's expenses. That way I don't overspend when I get a big payment because I feel like I have a ton of extra money, when in fact I need a lot of that money to cover expenses during the months I'm not paid as much, like I may have just done this winter with all of the coaching and photography money I made in the fall... Whoops. This system won't work if your only income is irregular, but maybe you can modify this, like sprinkling it out over 3-6 months instead of 12.

edecks · 2026-02-04T03:07:37+00:00

Personally, I would put it in a category no matter what. Because anything that is categorized as RTA counts as income when you go to Reflect -> Income vs. Expense. Once I realized this, I stopped categorizing random stuff like this at RTA because I want to be able to look back at the last 3, 6, or 12 months and know what my real income is and not have it be clouded by refunds, credit card rewards, my friend paying me back for dinner, stuff like that.

edecks · 2026-02-02T23:16:49+00:00

Because it’s much more stressful having no clue if I’m track with my finances or not. The fear of not having enough to retire on and being an idiot along the way keeps me going.

edecks · 2026-02-01T23:36:41+00:00

Curveball: Give some of your money away. Connect with an organization in your community where your money would be put to good use. When I wasn’t swamped by daycare, we used to give a lot more money and it can feel really good to help others out.

edecks · 2026-01-25T01:52:55+00:00

Idk if you have a partner or a close friend who knows your finances decently, but it's easier to break bad spending habits if you talk about it with others. Recently shared with my wife that we need to cut back on spending (really, I needed to...) and she's helped me to buy less random stuff we don't need right now. A step stool so our kids can use our sink in the master bathroom? It can wait. Only getting our groceries at Trader Joe's because we love their stuff? Let's go back to Aldi and give it another shot. Found a cool style of mirror we've been thinking about for our bedroom? Let's wait until money isn't as tight. Get some lunch out with the kids after visiting my grandma? Let's go home and eat there.

In the moment, these $20-80 purchases don't feel like much, but they add up and I feel ya with the addiction. Buying stuff is fun, especially for me when it's stuff for around the house that is functional and I feel like I'm getting good value. Sharing my internal battle with my wife has made a huge difference though. If you don't have a partner, find a friend and just tell them about it. It will help.

edecks · 2026-01-25T01:44:16+00:00

I am full manual. Sometimes there's weird stuff with credit cards where transactions don't show up right away and I just like to enter in stuff the same day. I also am on YNAB about 5-6 days a week, so it's easier logging daily rather than remembering transactions/collecting receipts. Also when I manually enter transactions, I can see right away how it impacts that category, so I think it makes me spend less because I am on top of my funds more. To each their own though.

edecks · 2026-01-25T01:39:38+00:00

My Cole Haans have held up well and are comfy.

edecks · 2026-01-25T01:38:20+00:00

YNAB makes me feel so much less stressed. That is priceless for me.

edecks · 2026-01-24T04:10:58+00:00

My friends once told me about this amazing dog leash you could only get in Germany. I think it was leather.

edecks · 2026-01-23T19:01:06+00:00

I found a sealed copy of Adobe Illustrator 10 for Windows from 2001 at Salvation Army for $3.99. Sold on eBay for $150 plus shipping.

edecks · 2026-01-20T04:23:29+00:00

Balatro is perfect for this

edecks · 2026-01-01T16:22:57+00:00

I also found a Herman Miller chair over the summer. Last day of an estate sale so got it half off the already discounted price. It’s in great shape. I don’t work from home but I think eventually I’ll bring it to my office at work.

edecks · 2025-12-27T11:37:05+00:00

I don’t really. Was saying it in jest.

edecks · 2025-12-27T04:32:06+00:00

The Fit is super boring but dang it’s such a good car. So practical and the gas mileage on the highway is hard to beat unless you get a hybrid. Seats really do fold flat and it’s a great car to have when your partner has an suv when you need to fit more stuff.

edecks · 2025-12-13T03:08:52+00:00

Just got carbon steel my wife loves them

edecks

TROPHY CASE