YNAB week 4 - Before payday
by DannyUK
YNAB week 4 is starting in the run-up to payday.
I’m struggling at the moment having spent the past few days in London with Mrs DannyUK, and not sticking to the budget, which is a ridiculous place to find myself.
That said, having YNAB there, running in the background, and updating it as I went along meant that I managed to keep my spending in check, even if I didn’t stick to my limits.
It was always going to be difficult, even when setting aside money in categories such as “Spending money” and “drinking”

I planned ahead, but still overspent! Fortunately, I managed to balance out these categories, but at the expense of other areas.
The situation is made harder by the fact that I don’t get paid until Friday, so this morning I have spent thirty minutes or so re-evaluating my budget and adjusting it accordingly. The upshot is that I have little left to spend before payday in terms of “fun money”, but at least all of my bills are catered for.
It’s a shame that the same can’t be said for my savings goals, which - for this month at least - have been sacrificed in the name of cocktails in London. Oh well.
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Friday should be interesting as I work in a job that pays a basic plus commission, and I have no idea what that commission will be yet. It means that I can’t plan ahead as I’d like to, and it doesn’t even allow me the luxury of knowing I have enough to pay my bills. Such is life, I suppose.
One of the benefits of using YNAB is that you aim to get to a stage where you are living a month in advance, which would be absolutely ideal in my line of work.
I have a day free from work today. All I need to do is to work out how to make this one cup of latte stretch out for the entire day…
If you’re reading this on the day of publication, I have a code for a free copy of YNAB which I’ve advertised on Reddit for one lucky person to win. You can visit that page here.
Alternatively, you can get a 10% discount on YNAB with this referral link.
Read my previous posts about YNAB: Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3.
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Always a tricky one in the run up to payday. As you’ve found though the secret is flexibility, without just running up a debt