The YNAB Blog
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Tracking hobby spending
Sometimes I think the most fun part of starting a new hobby is acquiring all the things you need to do the hobby. At least that was the case for me when I started knitting 20 years ago. Or coloring ten years ago, which morphed into hand lettering seven years ago and became Bullet Journaling…
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Treat your credit card like a debit card
One of the genius things about YNAB is the way it handles credit cards. Let’s say you spend $50 on food at the grocery store. In the credit card account, you categorize that $50 into the groceries category. Assuming you have the money in your groceries category, YNAB will move $50 from your groceries category…
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Be careful when approving transactions
Once you’ve been using YNAB for a little while (if you use direct import), YNAB might suggest a category for each transaction. It’s basing the suggestion on past transactions from the same payee. I want to urge you to take a moment to consider YNAB’s suggestion before clicking Approve. If you approve blindly, you may…
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Can you trust your budget?
Trusting that your spending plan is accurate is the key to creating peace of mind with your finances. Luckily, YNAB makes it easy. All you need to do is a YNAB check up (which used to be known as a budget audit). I suggest doing it on the first day of each month. Here’s how:…
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What does it mean to be a month ahead?
YNAB has long espoused the benefits of aging your money and getting a month ahead in your budget. With the recent revamp of the YNAB method, the Resilience question, “What can I set aside for next month’s spending?” replaced Rule 4: Age Your Money. The message and goal are unchanged: You want to break the…
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Creating a values-based template
On New Year’s Day, I revamped my category groups. I was inspired by Nick True’s excellent 2025 Getting Started Guide YouTube video, which mentioned having the option of having a values-based template for your spending plan. That really appealed to me, so thought I’d give it a try. I started by doing a Fresh Start,…
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Pinned tabs for multiple budgets
I actively manage two budgets that I interact with multiple times a day. One is our household budget (called Janine and Barry’s budget) and the other is the budget for my business, Peace of Mind Organizing. I have a third budget I manage for my brother but it doesn’t require a lot of attention. I…
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Introducing Peace of Mind Spending
Last week, YNAB made a big announcement. They revamped the way they’re teaching YNAB. Gone are The Four Rules. Only Rule One, Give Every Dollar A Job, was retained and it is now the whole method. Give Every Dollar a Job is now backed up by five carefully thought out questions. If this is the…
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Spending mindfully this Black Friday
Sales abound this week, at least here in the U.S., as shoppers have come to expect great deals on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Over the years I have made more than my share of impulse buys on Black Friday, some of which did not serve me well. That contributed to clutter, self-recrimination and…
Are there any YNAB or spending topics you’d like me to write about?