Budgeting software

[Colleen27]

What software do y'all use to track your budget? I've been using a basic Excel spreadsheet basically as an electronic checkbook register but I'm looking to switch over to something a little more advanced/full featured.

I downloaded the trial of YNAB and like it well enough, but at $60 the full version is a little more than I want to spend. I haven't found anything else that seems to compare, though. I definitely want an entirely offline program rather than anything like Mint that runs online.

Any budget-friendly recommendations?

 

[Sadie22]

I have been using Quicken for about 20 years. You do not have to download anything to it and can manually input everything, which I do. You have the choice of downloading transactions from banks and credit card companies and such if you want to do so. I like being able to search on words like microwave and see when I bought ours, or see how much we've paid for homeowners insurance over the last five years. It is a very versatile program.

 

[DawnM]

YNAB was discounted to $39 I believe around Christmas. I paid the full $60 about 2 years ago and absolutely LOVE it.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

We use MS Money (don't think it's even sold any more) for our checkbook and credit card registers, and yes, we track all transactions on the cards just like we do on our checking account, and balance them probably at least twice a month.

But, for budgeting and tracking actuals, we still use an Excel spreadsheet, it just lets us break things out like we want to and view our cumulatives in the way we want.

 

[Karenj2]

I second (third?) YNAB -its worth $60, in fact while using it I "found" money that I was wasting, enough that I was able to set up a $500/month auto withdrawl from our checking to our emergency fund account. That, IMHO, makes it VERY worthwhile... (And, like you said, it's offline - I never liked the idea of an online budget system...)

 

[pumpkinmomma]

We have used Quicken for years. We really like it. Easy to use, easy to track your spending, very versatile. I recommend it.

 

[megsters]

We have used Quicken for years. We really like it. Easy to use, easy to track your spending, very versatile. I recommend it.

Us, too. Love Quicken.

 

[Golf4food]

Mint.com does everything you probably need, is FREE, and is available to you anywhere you can get online. Plus there is a smart phone App if you want to access it from your phone. I finally switched a couple of months ago from a spreadsheet system to Mint and couldn't be happier. (I had tried mint in the past but my credit union wouldn't link our checking accounts with them, but since then they started doing so and now we can view everything in Mint - one stop shop, with charts and graphs, email notices, etc.)

 

[tzolkin]

Mint.com does everything you probably need, is FREE, and is available to you anywhere you can get online. Plus there is a smart phone App if you want to access it from your phone. I finally switched a couple of months ago from a spreadsheet system to Mint and couldn't be happier. (I had tried mint in the past but my credit union wouldn't link our checking accounts with them, but since then they started doing so and now we can view everything in Mint - one stop shop, with charts and graphs, email notices, etc.)

We've also been using mint for a while and love it.

Even though I still do all the bill paying/etc DH likes that he can check things on his Ipod touch. Before he didn't really pay attention to our finances, so it's nice that we're both involved now.

You can set up monthly budgets for different categories (groceries, utilities, etc) and goals for paying off debts (mortgage, CC, etc). It's nice to be able to see at a glance exactly what we've spent in each category. We have no CC debt, but we do have a home equity loan that we have been putting our extra money toward as one of our goals. DH really enjoys watching the amount go down.

 

[DebDeb]

Been using Fortora Fresh Finance for years, love it. It makes it easy to balance my checkbook and track my credit card payments. I like that it has very clear screens not too cluttered. They have a Mac and PC version. Only $39. They have a free trial on their website fortora.com give it a shot!