wish: the budget, a step further : "zero based budget" (example: YNAB)

[HelloTheWorld]

As I said before, I come from YNAB (You Need A Budget)
and I really, really believe in their approch to give every dollar a job.

No offense, but it's really a point that make me asking myself if I should, finally, go back to them. I think I should (...we could ?) find a workaround.
(with this idea of scene set up : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cc_h5Ghuj4 )

I'll explain myself.

Actually, I build my budget. So I know where I spend my money.
BUT
- I don't know if I overshoot or undershoot my incomes,
- I don't know how to say "reserve this amount of available money for the unexpected event that will ruin your life or at least your account if you didn't save for it".
- More specifically, I saw that my total final balance were, slowly but but deadly, drifting, and have been divided by two in a year. Argh!

So I MUST be able to
A/ control that I don't over spend,
B/ allow some "saved money" in the budget that is not an expense... But a "saving". And as all my account are in Homebank, they are "internal transfert" so I can't catogorise them as "saving A" or "saving for rainy days".

It's more a "do you have any idea/proposition/plan about it ?" question than a wish ':-D

[Romain (tchecker67)]

Hi,

I'm using YNAB (You need a budget) to do my budget. I like the zero based budget approach and the ergonomy and features offers by YNAB.

With Zero based budget, the idea is to give every dollar a job (every dollar is assign to something). It is link the envelope system : you could save money for Holiday in a virtual envelop ; save money each month for Dining out, ...
This way, you only spend money you have... You will not order sushis because you don't have enough money in your Diner out category (or you could take money from another category).

Example of the target feature :
Water bills are twice per year. So I create a target "250€ every 6 months, started the 5/10/2024". And YNAB calculate automatically the amount I need each month in this category "Water" to reach 250€ on the 5th October 2024. And at this date, the target will restart to reach again this amount on the 5/04/2025 (6 months later)... And so on as long as the target is changed or canceled.
But YNAB is expensive, around 100$ /year.

PS : I use homebank since a few days because it offers better reports, and datas are stored localy (and to support a french mate :) )

PS2 : maybe created a new wish post for Zero based budget features ?

[HelloTheWorld (loic-dupont)]

Happy to see an other (former?!) YNAB french user !
Indeed, we could start a "zero budget wish" topic, but, for once, it seems out of my league to generate it... I am afraid to wrongfully present it (you did it well by the way).

Thus, i I'll happily support this initiative.

[HelloTheWorld (loic-dupont)]

(Changed title to conform to "zero based budget" name)

[Cobblepot (cobblepot)]

I ended up here while looking for a free, open-source, zero-based budgeting system. I have been looking for years. I see that it is possible but not here yet. I'll watch this thread with hope.