Budget Software

[Houpilot2001]

Jut curious if any of you guys have any budgeting software you might recommend. I am an avid Dave Ramsey follower but have been bouncing between budgeting software for a while and cant seem to nail down one I like.

Has/does anyone use YNAB or quicken?

If yall have any suggestions I would appreciate it.

[ffemt300]

My wife and I recently started using Mint. We did Dave Ramsey's FPU and are currently knocking out debt like crazy. My brother and his wife turned us onto Mint. It takes a bit to get it set up but its great once you do. It hooks up to your bank account and lets you create budgets ant other financial goals. One draw back is that it takes aprox. 1-2 days for transactions to appear in Mint (as well as our CU website) but we have an extensive envelope system and find ourselves using our debit cards less and less. Best of all it's free. It has a mobile app as well, if you are into that sort of thing. Keep it up! Hope you find something that works for you.

[Houpilot2001]

Yea, I am working on the envelope system. It just seems that I haven't hit that never again moment because I keep doing the same stuff. I have gotten really close a few times, only to fall back into the rut.

[terryg]

I use Quicken and have for longer than I can remember. I started using it because of it's ability to pay bills online. Of course, all banks now support this directly. But I have found that I like it via Quicken better.

But, I find Quicken's budget features to be horribly lacking. Long before Dave Ramsey (and Quicken), I followed Larry Burkett's 'How to Manage Your Money' paper based envelope budgeting system. For many years, this system - tedious though it was - really helped us stay on track. I have tried several times to implement a strict zero-sum budget in Quicken, but it simply is not built for that. Our finances are a bit looser than they were back then, so I am able to keep things good enough using Quicken. But if you are looking for a tool to make sure that every dollar has a job - you should look elsewhere.

I played with YNAB and mvelops recently. I was very tempted by YNAB. The biggest downside to them that I found is that there is no automatic downloading of items. But the mobile app worked really well. If you use a dropbox account, you and your spouse can both run the mobile app on your phones. I found mvelpes to be a bit clunky and you have to pay a monthly fee.

[apostate]

I used Excel to make a budget. Then I set up direct deposit for my budgeted saving, a checking account for non-discretionary expenses (mortgage, etc.) and what's left over goes into a second checking account. If the second account runs out of money, I stop spending until my next payday.

I gather it's similar to the envelope system insofar as it controls spending, but my system gives me flexibility to spend more $ on ammo if I spend less % on food that week, for example. That flexibility within boundaries is what makes it work for me.

[knotquiteawake]

I used Excel to make a budget.

I have used Quicken, Mint, MS Money and still nothing is better to setup a budget than excel for me. This is just for the setup the budget part of your endeavour though. What I do it start the top of the spread sheet with our combined paychecks, add in a line for each "fixed" expense (mortgage, electric, insurance, loan payments and so on). Everything left you can divide up. This is where those packages like Mint or Quicken come in handy to know how much you have been spending on eating out, groceries, shopping etc so you can make a realistic budget. Like if you are spending $500/mo on Groceries and you decide to budget only $300 for it then you are likely going to be over budget every month.

[pbwalker]

I use YNAB. I love it...simple interface, but full of great tools for budgeting. Well worth it.The iPad / iPhone integration is a great feature as well.

[CodeJockey]

We use Mint. It's definitely not perfect, but it's decent, and it's free, plus it's supported on both Android and iOS. As a software developer, I have actually thought of writing my own, custom-tailored to my needs, but Mint is good enough, and I just don't feel like doing it in my spare time.

[Houpilot2001]

Appreciate all the response's guy's. I find that Excel works the best for me as well. I guess I am just looking for that magical fix, but really just need to put in the effort and stay on track.

[jacobsd8195]

I've used Excel for our household budget for 10 years now. I have the entire year in one worksheet, with the beginning balance from one month linked to the ending balance of the previous month so I can see how an expense will effect the rest of the year.

[cheezit]

quick books, started with it in 2003