Budgeting software?

Any suggestions? It'd be really nice if it would tie in with my bank accounts, credit cards, etc.

I'm about to become a budget Nazi so I can cut out the stupid stuff (going out to eat/drink all the time) and cut down the grocery budget a bit, so I can justify spending money tracking the BRZ.

We've been using quicken for a LONG time. At least 15 years. Like it enough.

But with good, organized work, it can be done in an Excel spreadsheet (or some other freeware sheet).

Ynab. It works on your phones.

Mint is what we use.

Budget functions are a bit clunky, but I love being able to look at a year of history of ALL our accounts and see patterns. Also love seeing the net worth trend upward... haha.

The big question is - online or offline?

Mint.com does get pretty good reviews if you're after online software and IIRC it is free.

Quicken (on Windows) work OK, recent releases haven't been that great as Intuit kinda neglected it somewhat and it's up for sale right now. I do have the latest release, not sure if I'd buy it again TBH but it works. IIRC the Mac version is really neglected, I wouldn't spend money on that.

On the Mac I also happen to have Banktivity (née iBank) which works pretty well for my needs. Main issue with it is that you also need to subscribe to a service of theirs if you want to have automated statement downloads for some of the credit unions I'm a member of. I've been a user for over five years by now and their support is pretty good - Quicken has a reputation for less than stellar support so if you both have a Mac and want decent support...

IIRC Quicken does have some sort of Smartphone app, but it requires you to sync at least some data with the "Quicken cloud" (whatever it's called) and I'm not too keen on that. Banktivity used to have an iPhone app but they discontinued support for it.

Been thinking about this. Would like to know what I'm spending on groceries every month versus what I spend on Amazon. My wife thinks I'm spending us into a hole on Amazon but I'd gather its less than 1% of our income per year.

Are there any downsides to Mint?

If youre trying to track expenses/aggregate your accounts there is also Personal Capital. I use mint and PC and I'm not sure which I like better.

Only downsides I can think of is having to relink your accounts or trouble shoot why certain accounts are updating. Otherwise it works pretty well.

Somepeople like YNAB but that's not free.

Is no one creeped out about tying all your financial info into a free online service?

I'm interested in suggestions, too.

Years ago, I used Microsoft Money. Now that I use a Mac (and, Money was discontunied), I've been looking for an alternative. But, with something specific. Money had a graph showing expenses into the future. Once you had everything setup, it could show you how much you would, theoretically, have in 12 months if you stuck to your expenses. It was nice because it helped to encourage long term savings, seeing that you could have a nice nest egg in a short amount of time.

I've tried a bunch of different ones since them (most of the ones above), but none have that above feature. Sounds silly, but it was (and is) hugely motivating when doing bills.

Anyone seen something like that?

-Rob

Huckleberry wrote: Is no one creeped out about tying all your financial info into a free online service?

It doesn't matter. Anyone who could do real damage to your finances can already get it.

Take off the tin foil hat and enjoy a glass of Bourbon.

Huckleberry wrote: Is no one creeped out about tying all your financial info into a free online service?

Slightly, yes. But I figure that all my information is already tied together using a single 9 digit number and all my financial institutions are independently storing (and probably sharing with each other across the internet) my financial information already anyway.

I try not to worry about things I cannot control.

I use Banktivity (formerly iBank) on my iPad. It's $40 a year. You need a Mac PC to get the full budgeting features. It links with your bank.

I used mint. Looked into YNAB, and decided it wasn't for me (not sure why).

I use an excel spreadsheet now . Mint wasn't cutting it; for some reason it wouldn't link up to one of my accounts all that easily.

I think we're going to go back to it though.

rob_lewis wrote: I'm interested in suggestions, too. Years ago, I used Microsoft Money. Now that I use a Mac (and, Money was discontunied), I've been looking for an alternative. But, with something specific. Money had a graph showing expenses into the future. Once you had everything setup, it could show you how much you would, theoretically, have in 12 months if you stuck to your expenses. It was nice because it helped to encourage long term savings, seeing that you could have a nice nest egg in a short amount of time. I've tried a bunch of different ones since them (most of the ones above), but none have that above feature. Sounds silly, but it was (and is) hugely motivating when doing bills. Anyone seen something like that? -Rob

Same here, I loved that graph in Money. I could see my projected growth and it was awesome. I use Mint now, but it's not the same, and I wish I could find a Money copycat.

+1 for Mint.