Hi all, we’ve been using Monzo for a couple of years but feel we have not yet used it fully.
We used to use YNAB a few years ago and quite liked seeing exactly how much money we had planned left at the end of the month and our forecast spends by category.
Now we could do this by putting all of our money into pots, but wouldn’t this mean constantly having to move money from pots to our current account to ensure that there is enough money for the transaction to run?
Are there any blog posts or guides that show in detail how people use Monzo to budget?
I think there’s a fair few people on here who either use YNAB, have used YNAB, or tried to implement a YNAB style system in Monzo - so hope you can get a good mix of experience.
I personally found it very hard to embed a YNAB style philosophy into the constraints of the Monzo app - as you say on Pots - it can result in the constant moving of money. YNAB is “location agnostic” where as Monzo is not.
If you don’t want to use an external tool - your best approach is by doing the Pots thing as you say - but you’ll have limited categories you can use.
Some (myself included) have set up Dashboards using Google Sheets - which can give more flexibility to set up how you want - but is a lot of effort.
But honestly, I genuinely think that if the YNAB approach works for you, the best thing is to just use YNAB - and avoid the Monzo budgeting features because it confuses things.
Personally, I went back to YNAB and just decided to embrace their approach and hide away all the other features of Monzo that make it convoluted. Some pros/cons either way, but I found keeping Pots and Budgeting YNAB style isn’t compatible.
I appreciate that your post is from a few years back now but I hope you don’t mind me asking whether you are still using YNAB and still feel that you are getting value from it and in particular whether there are any friction points with UK-based accounts.
Thank you!
Not aimed at me but I can answer this one - it depends on your bank. Most have support via Open Banking. Things like the T212 card don’t
I’m using YNAB and have Open Banking connections with HSBC, Monzo, Revolut, Monzo Flex, Amex and Barclaycard. Anything that doesn’t support Open Banking you can add manually and it will work fine.
You can also manually add savings and stocks and shares GIAs and ISAs to track your Net Worth (which is independent of budgeting but there if you want to do that).
YNAB is not a UK product (as you know) but it works fine with UK banking (direct debits, credit cards, etc.). Even works for splitting payments with Monzo Flex.
Thank you
Thank you for the detail - I’m edging closer to taking out a subscription. Your comments are re-assuring.
YNAB have something like 34 days free trial so you can spend over a month deciding if it works for you.
My YNAB referral is in the referrals thread for anyone that would like to try it, too 
There are many instructional videos on YouTube from YNAB themselves and users, both general overviews and more detailed ones on specific tasks like dealing with credit cards.
My YNAB trial is about to expire so I’m looking for a referral link. Please post links to your codes and I shall randomly choose one 
Some will be irrelevant, YNAB keeps changing UX/UI recently. Worth keeping in mind for people looking at videos and no idea what is going on
If you search “YNAB 2026” into YouTube there are numerous channels dedicated to YNAB so any changes are quickly discussed. I’ve used it for years now and no change has been so drastic as to not be able to understand it.
This chap is quite good I find:
Or you could use the official YNAB channel which is actually quite simple (albeit they tend to use all the features which can be overwhelming at first)