Best online tools/services/apps for budgeting

[delightedbutterfly]

Since my goal is to make budgeting easy and well used by our family, I'm hoping you guys can post your best or favorite online budgeting tools or services. It would be wonderful if you can add a little about why you like each one!

Also I'd love to hear about Budgeting Apps. It may help DH stay more connected and involved in the budget if we can have interconnected Apps on our phones.

[veganmama44]

i just discovered budgetworksheets.org which has worksheets made or you can customize. i don't think there's an app, but i can use it from my kindle fire.

[ene423]

NeoBudget.com!  It's fun looking and easy to use and FAST to update (my favorite part).  It only takes me about 10 minutes each week to update.  All you have to do is download a statement from your bank (don't have to give out bank info!) and then import that file into NeoBudget.  Then you go through the transactions, click on the envelope you want it to go in, balance, and you're done.

  It does have a moble version where you can enter in a transaction via phone right after you've left a store. 2 people can be loged in at once to the same account so you could both use it from your phone. That way you don't have to keep receipts if you don't want too.  The program will match up imported transactions with manually entered ones and mark it as "may have already been entered" when you go to import from your bank statement.  That way you don't accidently enter in the same transaction twice.

Edited by ene423 - 1/30/13 at 10:51am

[broodymama]

We started using YNAB (You Need a Budget) a little over a year ago after ditching Quicken and it's really helped us out!  We both have the app on our phones and when you enter a receipt it automatically updates to the the full version we have on my laptop and vice versa.

The biggest thing that's made a difference for us is being able to see how much we have left in each budget category, not just looking at the balance left in the account.  Before we would just see that there was $xxx left in the account and DH would buy a game, I would buy something for homeschooling or clothes for the kids, then the car/electricity/cable payment would be automatically drafted and *boom* we had spent those same dollars three times.    Now when I open up the YNAB app I see that we have x amount left in the grocery budget, y left in the homeschool budget and *oops* we already spend everything in the entertainment budget so that game/movie will need to wait until next time. 

[forevermom99]

Here is an easy online budgeting software that my husband and I have been using for a while now. It's called InEx Finance and it has some nice features for tracking expenses and planning a household budget. What I really like about this software is the ability to use it across several devices simultaneously, including the Android app that syncs with your online account.  

[MandiTheDoula]

Mint.com is my go-to financial site! It combines budgeting with monitoring your accounts. You link all of your accounts to Mint (without giving them your account numbers) and you have a sort of "control panel." You can see how much is in your checking, savings, and retirement accounts plus your credit cards, loans, mortgage, and any high-value assets you may have. It automatically registers purchases into each budget that you set based on the name of the person paid (Taget would be shopping, ATMs would be cash, etc). You can access it online or on your cell as an app. It's pretty much the best thing ever since online banking!

[Sphinxy]

I can't stand mint.com. They behave like bullies towards small community banks and credit unions. Our credit union's online banking site wasn't accessible to mint's "screen-scraping" technology (because it is a HUGE drain on thier resources with NO support from mint), so mint sent their users on an online smear campaign against the CU. It was total BS.

DebtInFocus is an excellent site for those who want a budgetting tool that is focused on paying down debt.

For monthly budgetting of regular expenses and income, I just use a simple excel spreadsheet.

[delightedbutterfly]

These all sound really awesome!

I am really liking the sound of YNAB because we don't currently have categories... I pay the bills, put everything I need into my automatic withdrawal account and then end up spending the rest! So if we could both see what we had left in each area it would totally keep us on track!

[delightedbutterfly]

Any other tools or resources?

[Sunshyn74]

I just started using the Cashish app. So far I really like it.

[t2009]

Originally Posted by Sphinxy 

I can't stand mint.com. They behave like bullies towards small community banks and credit unions. Our credit union's online banking site wasn't accessible to mint's "screen-scraping" technology (because it is a HUGE drain on thier resources with NO support from mint), so mint sent their users on an online smear campaign against the CU. It was total BS.

DebtInFocus is an excellent site for those who want a budgetting tool that is focused on paying down debt.

For monthly budgetting of regular expenses and income, I just use a simple excel spreadsheet.

Yikes! That is awful. We currently use mint.com but, honestly, by "use" I mean we have an account but we don't really use it at all.

I'm intrigued by YNAB. But I have a question -- Does it access all your accounts in the same way that mint.com does? In any case, YNAB sounds good... Maybe we'll switch & actually develop a plan (which we desperately need to do).

[journeymom]

Our credit union has an online budget program, free with our account.  I just discovered it today.   If your bank has online banking service, check to see if they have a budgeting tool.  There's a page of the program that I couldn't figure out what it does.  I came here just now to ask a budget question, read the post below, and realized that's what that page is about!  Lol!  I can allocate how much I want to spend for each category and it will send me an email when I get close to the limit. 

Originally Posted by broodymama 

We started using YNAB (You Need a Budget) a little over a year ago after ditching Quicken and it's really helped us out!  We both have the app on our phones and when you enter a receipt it automatically updates to the the full version we have on my laptop and vice versa.

The biggest thing that's made a difference for us is being able to see how much we have left in each budget category, not just looking at the balance left in the account.  Before we would just see that there was $xxx left in the account and DH would buy a game, I would buy something for homeschooling or clothes for the kids, then the car/electricity/cable payment would be automatically drafted and *boom* we had spent those same dollars three times.    Now when I open up the YNAB app I see that we have x amount left in the grocery budget, y left in the homeschool budget and *oops* we already spend everything in the entertainment budget so that game/movie will need to wait until next time. 

Now I'm all excited.  I'm new to this budgeting 'thing'.    

[EsteyBomberger]

I personally am a huge fan of Mint.com.

They break down your expenses according to type. I think if you saw your grocery/restaurant spend you'd be just as surprised as I was. It hooks up to all your credit cards and online purchases, very handy

[BK Mommy]

Originally Posted by broodymama 

We started using YNAB (You Need a Budget) a little over a year ago after ditching Quicken and it's really helped us out!  We both have the app on our phones and when you enter a receipt it automatically updates to the the full version we have on my laptop and vice versa.

The biggest thing that's made a difference for us is being able to see how much we have left in each budget category, not just looking at the balance left in the account.  Before we would just see that there was $xxx left in the account and DH would buy a game, I would buy something for homeschooling or clothes for the kids, then the car/electricity/cable payment would be automatically drafted and *boom* we had spent those same dollars three times.     Now when I open up the YNAB app I see that we have x amount left in the grocery budget, y left in the homeschool budget and *oops* we already spend everything in the entertainment budget so that game/movie will need to wait until next time. 

This sounds great! I'll have to give it a try too!

Thanks for sharing.

[jmasc1]

We use Dave Ramsey's program. You can find his budgeting tools here: http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/

We started working his plan in March 2010 w/about $50,000 in debt (all student loans from Bachelor's & Master's!). We have paid off over $30,000 using his tools and we will be done paying off our debt this summer!

[t2009]

Originally Posted by jmasc1 

We use Dave Ramsey's program. You can find his budgeting tools here: http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/

We started working his plan in March 2010 w/about $50,000 in debt (all student loans from Bachelor's & Master's!). We have paid off over $30,000 using his tools and we will be done paying off our debt this summer!

Wow, that is really impressive! Way to go! And I'll have to check it out - my dad gave me one of his books so I will be digging that up!