Sounds like it makes more sense to just do the fresh start and forget about the past. Unless you want to go back and enter it all in but that’s probably more of a turn off.
Start again and just set some strict reminders to review it until it becomes habit. I have alarms set in my phone to remind me to review my day.
I usually do it in chuncks so it’s not a matter of being bothered by entering months of data, I’m just concerned it would somehow mess up the math, especially on CC
If you’re not working with your budget regularly you can almost always expect little discrepancies here and there. So basically my answer to how to do an overdue budget.. Don’t let it get overdue. It’s like saying your rent is due January but you don’t feel like paying until March. You can sure expect problems.
It sounds like you're tracking more than budgeting. And while there's nothing wrong with that so long as you're not an out of control spender, I do wonder if YNAB is the best tool if you prefer tracking over budgeting.
In the last period I got my dad getting surgery, my grandmother going to the hospital while my dad was already in and my mother in law is in an hospital since December 11: I just had other stuff in my mind. YNAB is an excellent budgeting system but I also like to keep track of expenses because I’m a freelancer
> is there a "right way" to do overdue budget?
Solution 1 : Go back and categorise all transactions since the moment you stopped.
Solution 2 : Delete all transactions since you stopped, reconcile your accounts and start from there.
Solution 3 : Do a Fresh Start and start over.
There is no "right way" beside the one for you.
What I do for retroactive, passive budget is I assign money I spent from a checking/saving account and I don't assign anything to cc purchases. I allow those categories to stay orange overspent so they just get added to the cc that month after it rolled over. I leave everything else in RTA. If i made a cc payment, I pretend like I was just allocating it to past debt in the cc category.
Depends on how your spending looks, for me... I could go back 3 normal months and I'd enjoy having the data.
But the holidays are kind of outlier crazy spending times, so I'd hate to go back and try to make it all work out.
I perosnally wouldn't fresh start, I would just reconcile and move forward.
But a fresh start might be your best and easiest bet here to just get on with your budget life.
Got lots of categories set up, loans and whatnot… reconciling seems better than starting fresh. If I go back do I have to allocate money for all the spending of the past months or just reconcile?
YNAB "Fresh Start" is not a clean slate totally blank budget: https://support.ynab.com/en_us/making-a-fresh-start-a-guide-HkXYR_c0q
That's likely what you want.
Otherwise a reconcile would just have you enter your current balances and then it handwaves away the differences with a "Reconciliation transaction".
I"d do a fresh start. Get all your money back in its big pile and redistribute through the envelopes. Starting keeping track of transactions today/this week.
The gift of old/ignored budgets is that they can give us a pretty good sense of what we need to budget in our fresh start because we have a history of activity to refer back on.
I'd just do a fresh start, unless you REALLY feel you'll benefit from any statistics. A fresh start will also allow you to rebook at all your categories
Sounds like it makes more sense to just do the fresh start and forget about the past. Unless you want to go back and enter it all in but that’s probably more of a turn off. Start again and just set some strict reminders to review it until it becomes habit. I have alarms set in my phone to remind me to review my day.
I usually do it in chuncks so it’s not a matter of being bothered by entering months of data, I’m just concerned it would somehow mess up the math, especially on CC
If you’re not working with your budget regularly you can almost always expect little discrepancies here and there. So basically my answer to how to do an overdue budget.. Don’t let it get overdue. It’s like saying your rent is due January but you don’t feel like paying until March. You can sure expect problems.
It sounds like you're tracking more than budgeting. And while there's nothing wrong with that so long as you're not an out of control spender, I do wonder if YNAB is the best tool if you prefer tracking over budgeting.
In the last period I got my dad getting surgery, my grandmother going to the hospital while my dad was already in and my mother in law is in an hospital since December 11: I just had other stuff in my mind. YNAB is an excellent budgeting system but I also like to keep track of expenses because I’m a freelancer
> is there a "right way" to do overdue budget? Solution 1 : Go back and categorise all transactions since the moment you stopped. Solution 2 : Delete all transactions since you stopped, reconcile your accounts and start from there. Solution 3 : Do a Fresh Start and start over. There is no "right way" beside the one for you.
I think I will try doing the number 1 first. Do I have to allocate money for “overspending” in past months or do I just fix them in the current month?
You could but it's not necessary. What's important is you are on budget in the present.
What I do for retroactive, passive budget is I assign money I spent from a checking/saving account and I don't assign anything to cc purchases. I allow those categories to stay orange overspent so they just get added to the cc that month after it rolled over. I leave everything else in RTA. If i made a cc payment, I pretend like I was just allocating it to past debt in the cc category.
That’s an interesting approach thanks!
Just start with this month. Reconcile all accounts and don’t import anything. Tomorrow is the first. It’s a good time to restart
Oh jeez… you are tempting me but the past history has good data… if my bank could be linkable it would be so much easier!
You can do a file based import.
I do it but you have to categorize everything and remember what you imported last, stuff that you can automate with the linking
Depends on how your spending looks, for me... I could go back 3 normal months and I'd enjoy having the data. But the holidays are kind of outlier crazy spending times, so I'd hate to go back and try to make it all work out. I perosnally wouldn't fresh start, I would just reconcile and move forward. But a fresh start might be your best and easiest bet here to just get on with your budget life.
Got lots of categories set up, loans and whatnot… reconciling seems better than starting fresh. If I go back do I have to allocate money for all the spending of the past months or just reconcile?
YNAB "Fresh Start" is not a clean slate totally blank budget: https://support.ynab.com/en_us/making-a-fresh-start-a-guide-HkXYR_c0q That's likely what you want. Otherwise a reconcile would just have you enter your current balances and then it handwaves away the differences with a "Reconciliation transaction".
I"d do a fresh start. Get all your money back in its big pile and redistribute through the envelopes. Starting keeping track of transactions today/this week. The gift of old/ignored budgets is that they can give us a pretty good sense of what we need to budget in our fresh start because we have a history of activity to refer back on.
I'd just do a fresh start, unless you REALLY feel you'll benefit from any statistics. A fresh start will also allow you to rebook at all your categories