TrekJaneway

Hi guys - if you start reading THG in July, and read one book per month, you’ll get to SOTR in November, just in time for the movie.

I started a challenge on StoryGraph called Hunger Games: Race to the Second Quarter Quell, if anyone wants to track it. It’s totally free, and just for fun.

I was doing some poking around in YNAB today, and it looks like the “fund half” option was removed. It was there two weeks ago when I got paid, and now it’s gone. Bit of a bummer. I used that function a lot.

If someone has any insight, that would be great, but it’s not on the web version I’m looking at.

About a month ago, I wrote about my elderly cat who now needs $95/month for arthritis medication, and YNAB is the reason I can find the money to keep her comfortable.

Well, when I started YNAB in January 2025, I made some categories that have slowly been growing because they were for specific emergencies. One was “Kitty Katastrophe” for veterinary emergencies, but I also have the “Medical & Dental Oopsies” for human health concerns that insurance doesn’t cover.

My dentist told me at my cleaning two weeks ago that I had a filling going bad that was really close to the nerve. She was going to try to replace the filling ($128), but it might become a root canal. ($2000).

I am not a lucky p

I have two very elderly cats (16 and 18). This past week, my 16-year-old was having some trouble with her left hip. She fell a few times, so today, we went to the vet.

YNAB Win #1 - I didn’t even worry about the money. I set up a category ages ago called Kitty Katastrophe for this very scenario - cat needs a vet NOW. Category had plenty of money in it.

YNAB Win #2 - the vet gave her some medicine, and it seems like this was magic for her. She’s jumping on furniture and eating like I haven’t seen her do in over a year. The downside is, it will be $95/month to keep her on it.

What am I supposed to do? This medicine gave me my old cat back. She needs it. Well… I trimmed a little here, and

This may seem silly, but it’s definitely a win in my book.

I get paid twice monthly - 15th and last day of the month. If payday is on a weekend or holiday, we get paid in the last business day before that weekend or holiday.

November 30 was a Sunday. Normally, this would mean we get paid on the Friday before. But….that was Thanksgiving weekend, so Thursday and Friday were also holidays, meaning payday was the day before Thanksgiving. This is normal, and results in the longest stretch between paydays in the year (Thanksgiving to December 15).

Normally, it gets to be a bit of a challenge coming into that December payday. But, I just checked my budget, and it’s Thursday. Payday is Monday.

Just checking

I have been trying to figure out how to get a month ahead. /Technically/ I am, but it would require money to be redistributed from my emergency fund, and it’s low enough that I don’t want to do that.

I love cash budgeting videos. I know it would never work for me because I just won’t go to the bank as often as required to do it, plus I like my credit card rewards. And that’s why I use YNAB.

But…I realized that I give myself $50 out of every paycheck, off budget, for whatever stupid crap I want or need. I don’t track it, and it gives me that little bit of “rebellion” to keep doing the system.

But I hardly ever use the entire $50…so, I thought, why not do a savings challenge like the cas

I work for a teeny tiny company. It’s so small, we all fit on one Zoom screen. So, I’m relatively sure only 2 corporate credit cards exist, and the CFO and the CEO have them. (Maybe not even that).

When we have business travel, we put everything on our personal cards, file an expense report, and get reimbursed. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not uncommon in teeny tiny startup companies.

We had a big all company meeting at the end of April that multiple people (including me) traveled for. I put everything from the trip on one card, filled out my expense report, and waited. Credit cards exist due date came around, so I covered it with money from my emergency fund, which only exists because Y

I’m in a bit of a pickle. I posted earlier this month that, thanks to YNAB, I had enough money to cover $2100 for a new insulin pump. Awesome!!

Only today, I discovered that my insurance covered THE WHOLE THING, so they refunded it all back to my credit card. Awesome!!

But…I’ve been chugging along with YNAB, letting it dutifully move money from my categories to that credit card to pay it in full (not on the float). So, now I have money assigned to my credit card payment, but I have a giant credit to eat away at first.

Anyone have any creative thoughts on how to fix this and free up those dollars? I’d rather put it all back into Medical Expenses again, but it will only let me free up the

Big win today…

I have Type 1 diabetes, and my insulin pump needs to be replaced every 4 years. I knew it would be expensive, but I just got off the phone with the sales rep. She gave me the cost ($2,087.50), and I didn’t even break a sweat. I already knew the money was there, assigned for that job.

Actually, I have $112.50 left…

A very strange thing happened to me today…

I get paid on the 15th and the last day of the month (or the Friday before, if one of those falls on a weekend). So, today was payday. I went through and funded what absolutely needed to be funded with this check. Then I moved on to discretionary spending. All of March was funded, along with half of my fixed costs for April.

And there was a big, green $211.47 in RTA. I sat there stunned for a few minutes because I just wasn’t sure where to put it. It was the first time in my life I had money that I didn’t know how to spend.

My housekeeper (thank you, YNAB, for helping me find the money for that little luxury) has a birthday coming up next mont

I’m a newbie user, and prior to YNAB, I had separate accounts for things. Money that I wanted for specific things, or segregated from my “day to day pot” was funneled into a designated account.

I am also a credit card person. I put everything on a credit card, then pay it off in full every payday.

My father passed away on Tuesday, and I live out of state. I created a category for funeral travel and expenses, and raided my emergency fund category to fund it (I mean…this was one of the things that fund was built for). I assumed that I’d have to transfer some cash from my HYSA to cover that.

Nope. I’ve paid all of January’s bills remaining, and the first two weeks of February, funded the