New Household budget software for 2018

[disneymagicgirl]

I have been using YNAB for years. At first I was using it to stick to a strict budget. For the last 2-3 years I have just been using it to track spending and keep DH work expenses (that he gets reimbursed for) separated from our personal spending. I never upgraded to the version that pulls your transactions into the software for you. I'm trying to decide to I stick with YNAB and upgrade it, or go with different software. Inputting transactions myself is just too time consuming.


I want to keep DH reimbursed work stuff separated, I want to track our spending, I want all this to be quick and easy. For our "budget" I basically track our spending, pay it off at the end of the month, and transfer whatever is left to savings. This works best for us because DH is in sales and his income fluctuates a ton. One month we may move $12k to savings, another month maybe $1k. We actually end up saving a nice % of his income over the course of the year since we don't budget out his commission at all.

I have read about mint, quicken, and upgraded new ynab. What software do you budget board friends use and love?

ETA: I am a Mac user...sometimes that makes a difference.

 

[vacationer1954]

Quicken. We've used it almost 30 years. We always have had credit cards where we paid off the balance every month, so we never needed to use cash for anything. Credit card charges = automatically tracked spending, because Quicken downloads transactions from practically every credit card issuer. (Yes, we put checks in the collection plate - it makes itemizing charitable donations easier too!)

We have used the budget feature through the years. Before 2012, it wasn't very accurate or reasonable for that matter. In 2012, we faithfully tracked every single penny, and that helped us correct some problems with the budget and get it to the point where it was a very accurate indication of our spending habits. We haven't tried to cut spending since then - but at least with the budget accurate, we could take aim at specific categories if we needed to (and it may come to that this year as we begin to face some challenges getting employment at the same pay rates, due to our advanced ages).

I highly suggest keeping work expenses separate from personal expenses in every way possible: Separate credit cards, for sure, and even separate cash accounts if applicable.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Quicken. We've used it almost 30 years. We always have had credit cards where we paid off the balance every month, so we never needed to use cash for anything. Credit card charges = automatically tracked spending, because Quicken downloads transactions from practically every credit card issuer. (Yes, we put checks in the collection plate - it makes itemizing charitable donations easier too!)

We have used the budget feature through the years. Before 2012, it wasn't very accurate or reasonable for that matter. In 2012, we faithfully tracked every single penny, and that helped us correct some problems with the budget and get it to the point where it was a very accurate indication of our spending habits. We haven't tried to cut spending since then - but at least with the budget accurate, we could take aim at specific categories if we needed to (and it may come to that this year as we begin to face some challenges getting employment at the same pay rates, due to our advanced ages).

I highly suggest keeping work expenses separate from personal expenses in every way possible: Separate credit cards, for sure, and even separate cash accounts if applicable.

I will look into quicken some more. Thx! I also use cc for everything and pay at end of the month.
DH will only carry one cc, which is annoying b/c I am all about maximizing points, so he wouldn't carry a different one for work expenses. It works fine though using YNAB. I create a separate category and put all his work transactions into it. When he gets an expense check that income goes directly into that category as well. We've been doing it for years and it is working for us. I really only do it so I can make sure he doesn't get shorted. Could I do the same with quicken...just go in and move his work transactions into a separate category?

 

[vacationer1954]

Could I do the same with quicken...just go in and move his work transactions into a separate category?

Absolutely: That's one of four ways you can do it: You can also arrange categories hierarchically (so you can have a category "Work-related", with with sub-categories under it, such as "Travel", "Cellphone", etc.). You can also "Group" the categories (so you can have some categories as "Work-related", while other categories are "Discretionary", "Taxes", or "Housing-related"). Finally, you can use Tags (used to be called Classes) to tag specific items as work-related.