YNAB Newb question - Monthly adhoc purchase planning
Hi there,
I am starting to explore the world of budgeting apps, and wondered if YNAB is suitable for this use case:
I have been looking at some budget apps, but these seem to be somewhat retrospective - whilst I see the value in that, I’m looking for something more forward looking:
I have £x allocated in my “Family Activity fund” for the month, I want to map out at the start of the month how that is going to be spent (eg Sun 1st: Softplay, Sat 7th: Kids party etc) and then track against it. I’m then looking for that to roll up into a wider budget so I can see when other transactions (Bills, Foodshop, Transport etc) are planned.
My problem currently is we’ll allocate an amount in our manual budget, spend in an adhoc way, lose context of where we are in the wider budget and are then scrambling in the last week of the month.
Is YNAB suitable for this?
Posted Feb 25, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC