Patrick R Posted February 4, 2015 For household budgeting purposes. Strongly preferable that it doesn't have to connect to your bank information. Everything we've found so far has been counter-intuitive or confusing to use. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted February 4, 2015 Mint would be my first suggestion, except that it relies pretty heavily on linking to your finances such as banks and credit cards. I hear about You Need a Budget fairly often. It costs $60 but you can try it for a month. It's also available on Steam. GNUCash is free and open source if that's your thing. I've only used Mint (and haven't updated it in a long time, I should really do that...) but it works pretty well. If you link it to your accounts it'll automatically categorize expenses, warn you of suspicious charges or fees, remind you when bills are due, etc. It's also free. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elvaq Posted February 4, 2015 Only used Mint but not sure how it would work without the account linkages. Just fine I imagine but you might as well be doing everything in a spreadsheet anyway. Wait, have you thought of just using Excel? Probably only needs an hour or two of setup to have a nice little system going forward all based on your actual needs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merus Posted February 4, 2015 Excel? Honestly the hard part of budgeting is not the accounting, it's building awareness of where your money's going. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted February 5, 2015 Yeah, if I weren't using Mint I would be using Excel. But I use Mint. No real reason not to - the connection to your accounts can't be used to hack into them or anything even if Mint is compromised. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted February 5, 2015 While I agree that Mint is excellent, I think there's some value in keeping track of all of that stuff on your own, instead of having it automated.I mean, I don't do it because I would go mad and forget shit or whatever. But I know some people like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted February 5, 2015 At some point I realized that I'm just not good at making a budget no matter if I let software figure it out for me or if I track it on my own. Now I just use a series of bank accounts and credit cards with autopay/automatic transfer to handle like 90% of my finances and then just leave myself with very little disposable income. I use Excel to keep it all in order so I know who is paying me what, how much I hope to spend on whatever, which accounts are paying what bills, etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted February 6, 2015 All the recommendations of Mint have overwhelmed my illogical fear of linking my account information to my phone. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dibs Posted February 6, 2015 You let people on the internet persuade you to lower your personal security? Why don't you just post your credit card number here, sheesh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted February 6, 2015 You let people on the internet persuade you to lower your personal security? Why don't you just post your credit card number here, sheesh. Don't worry, we'll get it when he enters it into Mint's database. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted February 6, 2015 You could also just... not install the Mint app? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted February 6, 2015 I couldn't do Excel, which is why I was looking for a program. I'd always get home and forget to update it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted February 6, 2015 Just use the version of Excel in Office Web Apps or Google Drive. Both let you do editing in their respective apps now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
