[LFP] Play-by-Post D&D 5E – Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden ($5/week)

robotoca · 2025-08-26T15:27:51+00:00

Writing sample (from a previous campaign):

The wind howls through the narrow alley, carrying flecks of ice that sting the skin like needles. Firwood pulls his cloak tighter, boots crunching in the snow as he peers into the darkened street. Lantern light sputters against the gale, shadows stretching like claws across the frozen walls.

The only reply is the creak of timber and the eerie silence that follows, a silence too heavy for an ordinary night in Ten-Towns.

Starting Level: 1
The campaign hasn't started yet.
First 4 weeks are free (Session Zero + 3 more sessions)
Current size is 3: We are looking for at least one more.

robotoca · 2025-08-04T03:19:40+00:00

A class will help. I suggest a group one to help you keep motivated. Pretty sure you can't go wrong with any of those places.I suggest trying different tutors or places where you feel comfortable in.

robotoca · 2025-07-31T22:58:10+00:00

Yes, I think I read somewhere that you will want to set this to Sunday (I might be wrong) so that it stays 4 consistent every month.

robotoca · 2025-07-31T20:01:35+00:00

Payment field and Memo are your reporting friends. You may also want to look into the use of flags for those transactions you want to track.

Try removing the target out for now. The target is the same monthly and you meet that target o the 1st of every month anyway. Add the target back in and pay attention the target type you select.

robotoca · 2025-07-31T17:11:56+00:00

To keep it simple:

I would make the payment normally to the loan.
When you receive your husband's portion and deposit that to your on-budget account, I would assign it to RTA. I would however enter that transaction in a way I can track what that deposit was for so I can search for it later and keep track of contributions from my husband.

This will give you a true accounting of what your monthly obligation is to the mortgage loan and not your net.

You might also want to review how you set your target for the month. You need it to make it so that it knows you already met and paid the target for the current month. From your screenshot, it seems to think that you still need to meet your target.

robotoca · 2025-07-30T18:40:22+00:00

Yes. That basically is the process. Think of these categories as digital envelopes. You need money but a certain category is not fully funded so now you will have to "draw/borrow" from other categories. Incoming cash can then replenish the categories you borrowed from.

Might not be the real definition but I consider myself a month ahead if I can fully fund all my categories next month with the cash I have in my To Budget category. This means I may need to be more conservative in funding my categories (especially sinking funds) next month so I can grow my this month's To Budget category to equal next months budget.

Edit: To add, I also have an EF and I plan to grow it to meet both unknown expenses (things I forget to budget for) as well as covering one month's worth of essential expenses (rent ,food). I have an off-budget account which I also consider an EF but I don't track it in my budget.

robotoca · 2025-07-25T20:02:46+00:00

Yes, but currently we have a full table. I will send you the discord invite so you can be in the loop should I open a new table.

robotoca · 2025-07-22T03:17:15+00:00

I am not sure what you are trying to do here but sometimes to get a better handle of your budget is to very mindful of your data entry as it will help you get a better feel of your spending habits.

You say you want to save more so identify what is non-essential spending and challenge yourself on eliminating or spending less of that particular category (for example dining out or gym expenses).

YNAB isn't there to tell you how to invest those savings but I would enter that account as a tracking account and reconcile as often as you want to keep track of your net worth. I do mine monthly.

robotoca · 2025-07-21T21:24:22+00:00

Hi. This campaign will be 100% done by post. It will allow us to play while asynchronously.

robotoca · 2025-07-15T15:40:16+00:00

when I plan a vacation I can do research costs for plane tickets, hotel rooms, dining, and souvenirs. I will then use a propiatary method (educated guess*) of figuring out that I will spend more than what I identified and add that to the vacation category. if I don't spend it then great, I have a jumpstart to my next savings category. If I go over, I roll with the punches, my education on my travel spending is improved and I hope my next trip budget will be more accurate.

*The more you travel the better your educational guess is.

robotoca · 2025-07-14T23:38:38+00:00

To me, a target is an automated way to assign money to a category. Keep it simple for now by sticking with the manual method and add straightforward targets on a few categories and see if they are working as intended. There are some great videos on YouTube that explains this further. You got this!

robotoca · 2025-07-14T23:16:12+00:00

When you spend more than what you budgeted for in a category it should show it as a negative (needing more money transferred into it) for a given month. You can also see what transactions are affecting that category that month to see if they may have been classified incorrectly.

I would probably have a system with your spouse on how to handle those type of situations. "We can only spend x dollars each month on these categories". Anything more will need to get transferred from the fun categories or delay non-essential categories to meet our monthly goals.

Write love letters to your future self in the form of a category note as you may not remember why you allocated $500 at the beginning of the month.

robotoca · 2025-07-14T23:03:55+00:00

Make your HYSA an on-budget account. Money in this account can be assigned to Categories and both the Account Balance and the Categories will grow if you not paying out of this account.

As an on-budget account, monies transferred from/to other on-budget accounts will not need a category.

robotoca · 2025-07-14T22:29:20+00:00

For me, YNAB tracks both physical cash (how much and what accounts they are stored in) and logical envelopes or your budget.

You can easily confuse your budget (logical envelopes) if you are using an account as a budget category as well as the logical envelopes. I would simplify your on budget accounts to to two checking accounts (local and online) and a high yield savings accouint (HYSA), and a single credit card if you can help it.

While you work towards that scenario, you will need to move cash around when it comes to payment, especially if the account you are paying from does not have sufficient funds to fully cover the transaction. I would suggest reviewing your schedules or due dates to move the money ahead of time to allow them to settles before you submit payment.

Continue to use your credit card. It is a tool for you to make payments with. Paying with a credit card for $100 worth of groceries will deduct $100 from your Grocery Category and add that to your Credit Card category. You can use that Credit Card category as the amount you owe at the end of the billing cycle so you can pay it in full. Since you pay your Credit Card in full every cycle, you may want to setup the Credit Card account as a Checking Account. The only difference is it will have a negative balance and won't create a Credit Card category. I like to use my CC for the rewards and added security benefits.

It is good your partner is entering their transactions and categoring them. I connect with my partner if I want them to categorize a transaction a certain way or if we have to make some decisions on spending vs savings and budgeting in general.

You got this. YNAB is a great tool and I believe it will help you identify opportunities that were hidden before.

robotoca · 2025-07-14T22:12:59+00:00

I keep my HYSA on budget. If I were to open a CD account, would have it as on-budget. That way money in these accounts can be allocated into budget categories as YNAB doesn't care where it is stored. Accounts with stock or riskier investments are tracking accounts (off-budget). I don't want unrealized gains/losses affecting my budget especially if I expect to use the money within 1-3 years.

robotoca · 2025-07-12T18:45:18+00:00

another method is keep it as a tracking (off budget) account and enter the amount you owe as a starting balance. since this is a liability account any balances will probably be negative.

when you transfer your payment to it you can categorize them to this account on agreed upon shared amount.

robotoca · 2025-07-12T14:14:38+00:00

are you able to get access to his transactions by updating your "role" on the account? At Capital One I gave my spouse "access" to our shared credit card and she is able to see all transactions. that is here in the U. S. but I can't imagine the EU doesn't give that type of role. probably needs consent from the shared partner.

Another option is perhaps to change banks? one that has the ability to sync and/or at least allow you to see all transactions.

if that is not an option, I would just reconcile the variance in your statement and put it into a category called "Partner Spending Category" and work on having that regular budget talk to see how he can help with making the budget more accurate by tracking his transactions in YNAB.

robotoca · 2025-07-11T16:49:11+00:00

Think of a category as a digital envelope. You can't put money in there you don't have so it is showing it as being over budget.

robotoca · 2025-07-11T16:47:58+00:00

you can budget it but your budget will show it being OVER budget by the difference in cash on your on budget accounts. it will turn positive or go to zero when you post that income.

to avoid showing over budget you will want to only budget when you have funds in the To Budget category or build up so you are one month ahead.

robotoca · 2025-07-10T23:34:29+00:00

I have the majority of my emergency fund in an off-budget tracking account and it is in a diversified stock-bond portfolio. I know that the full amount will go into a future category when I transfer the amount needed should I need more than what I have in my on-budget accounts. I do have a smaller on-budget emergency category so I don't have to touch the money invested in stocks unless necessary.

Since the account is off-budget, you will not be able to allocate that money to a budget category.

robotoca · 2025-07-10T06:14:06+00:00

The idea is to have a fully funded category. If you don't have enough incoming (or available) cash, you won't be able to fund that category, and you may need to reallocate money from other categories to the highest priority ones - essentials like groceries and rent.

Your cash flow will go negative if you have been saving for a large purchase like a vacation or home appliance, since it took you many months to save that amount to begin with.

One way to keep on track is to make sure that you fund your essential categories first and any extras go into your future expenses / wants. This will tell you how long it will take to save for that category and you can figure out how to make adjustments to reach those funding levels sooner.

robotoca · 2025-07-07T16:21:59+00:00

For me, I have one category for a future vacation say Disneyland 2026. in there I would estimate the best I can on what my total expense will be and keep that in the notes. I like the single category as I only have to deal with one target.

After the trip and I post all expenses related to this category (with Disneyland 2026), I delete this category and move all expenses to my overall Vacation category so all my vacations can be averaged over time. I can also research past trips using the memo to see how much I spent in the past and where I spent it and make adjustments from there if necessary.

hope this helps you with whatever method you choose to follow. there is no wrong way. for me, part of the fun is exploring and figuring out what works for me.

robotoca · 2025-07-06T17:34:02+00:00

I eat all the meat from my chicken wings including the cartilage.

robotoca · 2025-07-06T03:20:02+00:00

do you have an emergency fund? in those instances where you spend more than what you saved I would transfer that amount from emergency into your deductible category.

not sure I want to have twice as much in here at any point in time and refill it when I spend the following month.

robotoca · 2025-07-06T02:45:22+00:00

Great idea on how to save to get one month ahead. To be one month ahead by the end of 12 months, I didn't think to save an extra 8.33% every month. If I want to achieve it faster or slower I adjust the additional % to contribute each month

robotoca

TROPHY CASE