Budgeting tools?

[O's mommy]

Hi there! Currently I am using Pearbudget as a budgeting tool for our finances. I really like it for budgetting purchases and such but I find it difficult to mentally keep track of what is in our checking accounts with it. It is just the budget amounts, not the actual amounts in the accounts. Like when I transfer money between accounts I have to remember why I did for example, or if I need to take out cash for some reason. I'm wondering if it would be easier to have a different budgetting system that links to our checking accounts? (we have two different accounts-one for bills and one for spending-food household items)

Maybe Quicken, does that one link to accounts?

How do others deal with budgetting and their actual checking accounts?

Thanks!!

[sanguine_speed]

We use Microsoft Money's free sunset edition to budget and pay bills, but we don't really need to know what is in our chequing account up-to-the-minute because we budget a month ahead. We know that pay will go into the account, and if we follow our budget and pay bills regularly, the money will be there. And, we have to log into online banking in order to pay bills, so we get a fairly regular snapshot of what's in there just to confirm. We also use cash for most things that can't be paid for through online banking (groceries, entertainment, allowances, home improvement...).
That all said, I'm pretty sure the paid edition of Money can be attached to your bank account, as can YNAB, which has a free trial.

[O's mommy]

I bought and tried several different times the YNAB software. I could not figure it out at all. Has anyone else had a good expereince with it?

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by O's mommy

I bought and tried several different times the YNAB software. I could not figure it out at all. Has anyone else had a good expereince with it?

I didn't enjoy it either. It was just a happy coincidence that Money was free, and I preferred it.

[texmati]

I'm not crazy about the quicken budget portion (it's just not as intuitive as the rest of quicken, you can't sort the columns by how much they are, little things like that). I feel it could have been done better. *but* it does have a feature that compares (in 'real' time) your spending in your bank accounts/cc vs your planned spending in your budget. Quicken will automatically get your bank balances and stuff, but you would have to keep up with making sure that all your spending was assigned in the right category.

[GirlBoyGirl]

I can't say enough good things about the PNC Virtual Wallet, it is amazing and has sooo many tools and features!

[crunchy_mama]

I will say it again but www.mint.com links to all your accts- credit cards, savings, checking etc and is FREE.  I do a fair amount of transfers and can easily relabel them.  If it is a recurring transfer you can have it set up to automatically label it appropriately and put it in the budget category that you set up.

[GirlBoyGirl]

I never really understood the point of mint.com... doesn't it only show you where you money went (in pie chart form)? Does it do anything else? I used it when it first came out and found their application clunky at best but maybe it has improved since then. However, I use the PNC Virtual Wallet and does the same thing as mint.com as far as showing you where you money is going (and does so much more)

[crunchy_mama]

I just checked out the virtual wallet thing it seems to be an actual account itself.  It talks about fees if you don't meet min restrictions.  I guess it would depend on what you are looking for and what you want a program to do for you.  I have my auto pays set up through my bank acct, which earns me 5% int.  I really don't need something else to do that for me.  I like watching where the money is going.  Mint sends you reminders about various things and updates at the end of the week, warnings about fees and over budget items. You can set up goals and have it linked to various accts and it has a form to help you see what you need to meet those.  I can see what I avg on various spending categories and determine how I want to change the budget accordingly.

[GirlBoyGirl]

Well yea the Virtual Wallet is PNC"s online banking tool for it's customers so you have to have an account with them but my account is free- no fees or minimums at all.

[littleplum]

Originally Posted by GirlBoyGirl 

I never really understood the point of mint.com... doesn't it only show you where you money went (in pie chart form)? Does it do anything else? I used it when it first came out and found their application clunky at best but maybe it has improved since then. However, I use the PNC Virtual Wallet and does the same thing as mint.com as far as showing you where you money is going (and does so much more)

Yeah, and it only shows what has hit your account.  And it frequently classifies stuff wrong.  I tried it out, and it just didn't work for me to have it tell me that I was spending too much on alcohol, when we spend nothing on alcohol.

[GirlBoyGirl]

I had the same problem, LittlePlum.

[crunchy_mama]

Well, it works very well for us.  I had it sometimes classify things wrongly but I cannot think of when it has done that recently.  I was just going by the PNC site which was talking about min. and such.