We live based on 4 paychecks per month between us. Money gets put to mortgage, groceries, and childcare first and then allocated to categories based on importance. She has horses so she gets what it takes to keep them alive. I get slightly less to a dedicated hunting/fishing account. Then we both get a modest allowance. We also fund two ROTHs with it to the tune of almost $1,200/mth. A vacation fund also gets filled each month. Four times a year we end up with 5 paychecks per month between us. This is when we build on our emergency fund and have some flexibility to treat ourselves. All of this is in addition to 403b, 457b, and pension contributions taken out of our checks.
If we were disciplined enough to review our finances weekly, like you, we wouldn’t need YNAB. But, it would never get done, so this works for us. It’s been exactly a year we’ve had it now. Our lifestyle hasn’t changed one bit. If anything, we spend more on family fun. But we somehow have way more money. I have no idea what it got wasted on before, but it obviously went somewhere senseless.
It has really allowed me to take a deep dive into what we’ll need in retirement. I used to think we were doomed to work until 65+. If the market produces 5% (inflation adjusted) returns over the next 15 years, we are done with full time work at 57 and fully retired at 60, assuming no unexpected health issues.