rafiki Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JillZ Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 I haven't used Dave Ramsey's method, but I do use and like You Need a Budget. It's pretty easy to set up, and I like that it's aimed more at budgeting rather than just tracking spending (although it also does this). For example, all of the money you have to spend for a month comes from the money that you actually bring in that month. You can't budget money that you don't have (actually you can, but you end up with negative, red columns which will drive you crazy until you have everything balanced :D). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 I don't have any good recommendations for you but Quicken is HORRIBLE for budgeting. I've used Quicken for probably 10 years and I love it for record keeping, downloading transaction, and keeping track of our checking balance. BUT, we starting trying to budget January 1 and I'm trying to create electronic envelopes because I don't want to have cash (overspending wasn't my problem as much as knowing what I spent on). However, the budgeting part of Quicken never processes credits (meaning if you return an item, it never reflects that you have that much more money in that account so you have to always remember to go back and fiddle with stuff to see what you have available in each account). It's a royal pain, but I'm making it work because I'm too cheap to buy anything else until this version is phased out (2 more years). But I'll be watching to see if anyone has any good free recommendations that would do both budgeting and checkbook stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbookbuzz Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 A piece of paper and a pen or pencil! :^) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetbasil Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Another vote for YNAB. LOVE it. :) We've been using it for hmmm... 3 yrs now I believe? It just gets better and better with each update. We have never been disappointed. I will add that the iPhone app is just so-so -- I bought it mainly in support of Jesse (the owner of YNAB), knowing that there will be great updates in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 YNAB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldskool Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Haven't followed Dave Ramsey, but I do use Mint.com to manage our budget. I love it. It will send emails to me if I am about to go over budget on something (such as eating out or... coffee shops:blush:) or if our account has a low balance. It has also received very good reviews. Lesley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 We use Excel. It's not hard to make up your own budget and Excel makes it very easy to keep track of everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 I have YNAB and I prefer it to any others I have seen. But after buying it and spending hours setting it up...I found I prefer my own pencil and paper system and some charts I made for myself. We have a mixed cash and online income, mostly cash...I found it too fiddly to keep track of all the little bits all the time, on the computer...so I allocated each its place and simplified it all and use paper. I like my system :) but it's unique for my situation. If I wanted to do my budgeting on the computer again...and i may in the future... I would happily use YNAB, and one thing I like about it is the 'living off last month's income' part, and I am working towards that, myself. I think YNAB would be easier to use if you were already living off last month's income, then you could just put the income in one chunk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiff in TX Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 We follow Dave Ramsey and use excel cause Im an accounting dork and like to do things myself:tongue_smilie: For the first three months of Dave, we used pen and paper... I liked being able to see what I scratched out because it didn't work, instead of just deleting it off of a spreadsheet. We have looked into mint.com and might make a switch in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praisefor3 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Mvelopes. Life changing. Do a search and you will see some other threads on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbsweetpea Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Mint.com. It is very easy to set up and I like seeing all the debt go away. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmith Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Mvelopes was very good and we used it for a while, but I have switched to YNAB recently. Still getting used to it, but I like it a lot. I didn't know there was a YNAB app, so I'm off to check that out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 We have used Larry Burkett's Money Matters for several years with success. Cinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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