Left YNAB because I didn't need a budget — I needed to see 2 days ahead
I used YNAB for almost two years. Categories, envelopes, the whole method — I actually stuck with it, which apparently puts me ahead of most people. And it still didn't stop me from overdrafting.
Took me way too long to realize the problem wasn't spending. It was timing. Three bills were hitting my account two days before my paycheck landed, every single month, and no budgeting category was going to fix that. I had the money — I just didn't have it yet when the bills wanted it.
YNAB is built around "give every dollar a job," which is great for figuring out where your money should go. It's not really built to answer "what's my balance going to be on the 14th." I found myself exporting stuff to a spreadsheet just to map bills against paydays, and that got old fast.
So I built a small tool that does exactly that — you put in your bills and income once, and it shows your projected balance for every day going forward, based on when things actually hit. Not a budget. Just a forecast, so I can see the dip coming instead of finding out from my bank.
It's called CashFlowCast if anyone wants to poke at it (cashflowcast.com) — but mostly I'm curious if the timing thing was just my problem or if other people switched off YNAB for a similar reason. Anyone else find the envelope method didn't actually solve the "will I have money on Thursday" question?