My rent situation doesn’t seem to fit typical reimbursement workflows in YNAB, and I’m getting a bit turned around. I have checked out videos and the YNAB Reimbursement Support pages.
I sometimes pay for things on my roommate’s behalf, and instead of them reimbursing me directly, we subtract that amount from what I owe for rent. So no money actually comes back to me, I just pay less rent.
At first, I tried using a “roommate owes me” category, but it started getting confusing, especially with month rollover. I was ending up with money in both Rent and the reimbursement category, and my Rent category would sometimes look underfunded or negative in the assigned column.
For context, we usually settle up at the start of the next month (e.g., April gets settled on May 1st).
What I’m trying now:
- No reimbursement category
- Rent set as a “Have a balance of” target with no date
- Any purchases I make on my roommate’s behalf get categorized directly to Rent
- I just do the final math outside of YNAB and pay the net amount
This feels simpler and avoids category juggling. I trust myself to keep the Rent category consistently funded without the standard monthly target option. What I’m wondering is:
Am I breaking any core YNAB principles here, or is this a reasonable approach for this kind of setup?