My partner and I just combined budgets rather than trying to split everything.
Could you try YNAB together (no extra expense to you and you can offer it free) and use YNAB to split things as mentioned in comment? Or if you don't mind losing some visibility then making a broad "together" expense category to pull from/put into?
Also! Maybe try a different card? Plenty of good cards to try churning! But I agree - it's frustrating when one doesn't pull. My credit unions credit card does that.
Ooh. I might use this. I didn't know it existed. Thank you!
Hmm...
I think I use YNAB to allow myself nice things while knowing I'm saving. I guess it's because I've got a saver mentality instead of a spender mentality. So I don't think the challenge would be useful to me...
YNAB gives me permission to eat out with coworkers when they invite me on Friday... Before YNAB I would feel bad not to eat a packed lunch.
I'm just not someone who buys unnecessary things on a regular basis. (I lean more towards splurging on outdoor gear once or twice a year.)
I like budgeting because it meant I didn't feel guilty buying two board games on FB marketplace this month even if I knew it meant postponing a purchase of an epilator until a future month.
I've tracked all my spending since I first moved out of my parents place for university... I think I would struggle not to. My anxiety loves loves loves worrying about money. Forget the fact that I could have no income for six months and live my usual life...
I've made a "my" view where I split out my long list of categories to feel better on my anxious days. I made my fiance a view to help his ADHD brain. I've used the overfunded view to double check for funky things. And I made a wedding view (mostly just because since it was its own category group anyway).
I did this for my ADHD partner. I absolutely adore having a million categories and I do majority of our budgeting because I legit enjoy categorizing our transactions every morning. But I'm trying to train him out of his poverty mindset so I thought simplifying his view to make it easy for him to check just the categories that are "fun" so that he'll actually spend from them without feeling guilty rather than avoiding any purchase or feeling bad about buying a $10 video game he can enjoy the...
I'm not seeing it yet - but YNAB is my current approach and I adore it.
I used to approach it in a project my income for the month and then assign that money into categories and into a savings pool. It was a good spreadsheet. I liked it.
But I find the envelope system that YNAB uses extremely powerful. You can set your categories (and it encourages you to remember expenses that only come up once in a while and budget for them on a monthly basis) and then you use the money you CURRENTLY have to fund them. You assign every dollar a job. Which means I can totally splurge on a fancy dinner... But it means I might be pulling money I assigned to my ski pass out (I sound ridiculously entitled, sorry... the blog posts they have give better perspectives if you are starting from high debt or low income). And I don't want to pull that money because I've been setting it aside slowly for months... So I don't splurge on drinks and dessert or I suggest street tacos or cooking at home for my friends instead.
I think #2 is unrealistic for a lot of people... The other points aren't bad.
Heehee. At least with money I can know exactly how I'm spending it. I hate the effort it takes to track calories and the level of associated uncertainty.
Envelope style budgeting:)
I'm going to reply to your comment... But check out the philosophy of You Need A Budget. One of their keystones is roll with the punches. If you go on a spending spree, you just acknowledge it, cover those categories with money from somewhere else (or have it be on a credit card where it'll warn you youre going into debt).
Yeah - we set up chores on a Google task list (which is what we already use). I tried to make each room its own thing (and only have 1-2 tasks per room). He also uses a white board so I add things there too. Good note of not adding it all at once.
Living together is super challenging. (It's overall going well. Im just grumpy atm.) I hope that medication and/or therapy will help make things easier for him.
Agreed. I wish it was cheaper. Although now with YNAB Together my partner and I can share an account and my sister also agreed to have her budget. (I can technically peek as account manager but I've promised I won't and we're close enough that it's not an issue.) But now it's $30/each!