Since getting Monzo & becoming geeky about my spending/budgeting, I keep seeing YNAB recommendations.
But I only have one bank account, and I’m really happy with the categories, targets & pots in Monzo & have started to stay in the black for the first time ever.
Those of you who use YNAB, does it sound like I’d get much out of it since I already have Monzo & don’t need to aggregate anything?
YNAB looks intimidatingly complex & the web interface makes me squint at all the info, but I’m willing to try it if it can offer more than what monzo’s already giving me. Would love to hear your thoughts.
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I dabbled with YNAB a few years ago (pre monzo) but couldn’t be doing with the extra admin.
After using Monzo a while I realised that I had unwittingly adopted YNAB’s key tenet - “give every pound a job” - but Monzo makes it frictionless.
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Not sure you’d get much out of it if you’re happy with pots etc. on Monzo.
I use it as I have multiple accounts and it helps keep track of what money is saved for what. I used to use a spreadsheet but it was far too easy for me to just spend the money I had in my current account!
I am giving it a go for a year, and then going to decide whether I need ynab for longer. It’s helpful with knowing how much I need to put a side for savings goals / how much to pay off on credit cards each month so I never pay any interest.
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YNAB felt like it demanded too much interaction from me to be worth it.
I feel like that’s a huge bonus for a few specific people though. Mainly:
- people on extremely tight budgets
- people working their way out of debt
- people who have fairly complex finances, multiple accounts, credit cards, loans etc
It’s no where near worth the hassle for me with my debit card and credit card and savings account. 
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I have monzo and another bank account, a credit card and a car loan so it helps me manage where the money goes. When I’ve finished repaying I’ll cancel and just use monzo for budgeting instead
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Thank you, everyone. Much obliged.
I took another peek at YNAB yesterday, recoiled when i couldn’t figure it out, & decided this advice plus my gut feeling means I’ll stick to my current ways. Monzo + Excel FTW! 
Update: I couldn’t quite drop the urge to get YNAB working, & eventually found enough info in the support docs & forums to get going.
If the support documentation had been more clearly signposted from within the budget itself I might have found & used it earlier!
It also helped to see posts in various places from other people struggling. My ego felt better knowing it wasn’t just me
Verdict so far: it is worth it even with one account, because it lets me plan ahead (eg see what my Savings balance will be if I stick to my budget for 6 months) & have tweaked budgets/goals for different months (eg move cash around for the month I have lots of gigs to pay for).
I also like having more categories & mentally setting up more ‘pots’.
Tip: don’t import loads of transactions in at once. It’s too overwhelming when you don’t know what you’re doing yet. Start with today as Day Zero, & budget with the funds & payments between now & next payday. Once you’re comfy with that you can go back & import historical transactions if you want.
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I’m having a look at YNAB and seeing as you’re post was over a year ago now, just wondering if you’re still using it/find it of any benefit?
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Brilliant. Thank you. So far so good?
What I really like about it is how it manages credit cards and managing your savings goals and budgets.
It’s not just a case of save a penny here or there with rounding up etc. But you can quite easily plan for each savings goal you need from your insurance renewal to holidays to house deposits.
You can keep track of investments and liabilities as well to give you a general picture of your overall net worth.
I’m using that free trial for the moment so going to see how it works for me, but so far it’s given me a much better picture of my spending and actual cash availability.
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You can also set-up an external script to send each Monzo transaction (spend/receipt) into YNAB automatically. I have it running and it is great - even less manual input. It’s a bit complex to set-up though…
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If you have an amex account, ynab natively supports syncing it (regardless that its a UK account).
I’m a big fan of YNAB - I used to have about 6+ accounts in it, but after moving to Monzo I’ve tried to narrow that focus much more. Admiteddly I fall into bad habits of not checking in with it, but I’ve used it, mostly ‘on’ for the last 6 years - and it’s helped me get out of debt (mostly) have a small emergency fund, get out of my overdraft, etc.
The principles can apply in any tool - you could do it by paper if you needed - but I found a lot of value in the software. The principle of ‘every £ you have, must have a job’ was what changed my relationship with money. Previously I saw money sitting around as money left to spend.
It can be as precise as you need it - you can create hundred of categories, which helps you focus on specific goals; rather than just “Savings” you could have; Pension contribution, ISA, Holiday Savings, Investment Savings, etc.
I found it particularly useful in trying to reduce my bad financial habits - eating out too much, and drinking too much coffee. So I made an eating out category and a coffee category, so it helps me control my spending.
I really rate - there are a few tools that help you sync - though I think certain transaction types can be a bit hit and miss.
Needs a bit of tinkering to set up.
Same person made this version, which is subscription based and uses TrueLayer and Open Banking for other bank accounts - though I always had issues with the Open Banking links
Or you can set up an IFTTT Integration using IFTTT Platform:
The main thing though is creating a habit.
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Hi, sorry for the late reply, only just saw this.
I still love YNAB, and that’s one reason I hadn’t logged into this forum in an age - my money-head is ynab based now. I use their app several times a day, & hang out on their forums. I genuinely spent last night on their youtube channel because it’s funny and helpful, and I got value from it even after a year of using it daily.
Since using YNAB I’ve paid off £6k+ of debt, no longer have an overdraft, saved a healthy emergency fund, been on holiday twice, & paid all the solicitors fees for buying my first house with cash, not credit.
This is the first time I’ve ever been in control of my cash, & I am no spring chicken. I actually know how much money I have, need and want.
I think it’s the flexibility that works for me, & seeing it all visually. I can have as many categories as I like and it’s easy & instinctive to move cash from one category to another if I need to.
More often than not, though, instead of moving cash around I think ‘ah but if I buy that top/pint/flight I will have less in X category for that other thing’ and so don’t spend it.
Using it with Monzo works great because I trust Monzo’s immediate transaction notifications. The pair work beautifully together, & I don’t mind not having auto-import because the entering of transactions is part of being in control of my spending.
YNAB does have a learning curve, I think it took me 3 attempts to figure it out & I couldn’t even find the help documentation at first. It’s not v instinctive to find from in the app. But once I found it, watched some videos & read the blog, I got it 
. HTH.
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Yes, exactly this 
So YNAB have just announced they are increasing their prices. For me, this means I will be paying over £70 a year now instead of £34. There is no advance warning and has come at the worst possible time for a lot of people. I get that prices go up, but I don’t know why they decided to raise it by so much just before Christmas:
I’m not gonna be able to convince anyone to join at that price (struggled previously as it was). If Monzo can beef up their offering, I am seriously considering cancelling my account - which makes me pretty sad.
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Mine auto-renews the annual subscription on 24-November. Which means I can still get it for $50 for another year. Just about. I haven’t explored this, but can you cancel your current subscription and resubscribe with an annual subscritption starting before the 01-December-2021 price increase?
But if I couldn’t, I’d be cancelling for the proposed amount of money ($99) - that’s double.
I only use YNAB for a few core features and a lot of other ‘nice-to-have’ features are simply unused.
That is lucky! Mine is March, unfortunately. I wouldn’t want to risk cancelling and have it not work, especially as I have 4 months left and the 10% discount applied - not sure if I would lose that or not. I do feel like this is going to be make or break for a lot of users.
If the 10% discount is the ‘for life’ discount (given out when upgrading from YNAB 4), it’ll still be applied on any future price changes.
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I’ve been grandfathered in at $50 so it’s a bit annoying to see that’s being abandoned now. Luckily, I paid this morning so I have a year before the price doubles at least.
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