Mvelopes? Mint? Dollar Bird? Any experience with budgeting apps?

[Harriet Vane]

With a dd going off to college, dh and I are trying to get our financial organization more organized. We've always budgeted, and I feel comfortable with our spending habits, so I am not looking for advice on spending or budgeting.

 

BUT we use antiquated methods of tracking and record-keeping that are time consuming. It seems there are tools out there to make that simpler.

 

A friend recommended Mvelopes. As I have looked online, I also found references to Mint, and someone here on TWTM mentioned Dollar Bird. Mvelopes seems cool and comprehensive, but I am soooooo clueless on the world of financial tracking aids. 

 

Advice?

 

Been there done that experience?

 

Recommendations?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[frugalmamatx]

I use Ynab. Been using it for nearly a year and I really like it. They do a 30 day trial I think

[ChocolateReignRemix]

Mint free and we really like it.

[Guest]

I'm using YNAB, but I am a little bit dum about certain things with it. I have not decided wether or not to continue it after the trial period. But being able to use the mobile app to immediately record purchases is pretty outstanding.

[Harriet Vane]

I use Ynab. Been using it for nearly a year and I really like it. They do a 30 day trial I think

 

Can you tell me more? What do you like about it? Anything you dislike?

[Harriet Vane]

Mint free and we really like it.

 

Can you tell me more? What do you like about it? Anything you dislike?

[Harriet Vane]

I'm using YNAB, but I am a little bit dum about certain things with it. I have not decided wether or not to continue it after the trial period. But being able to use the mobile app to immediately record purchases is pretty outstanding.

 

 

What certain things do you find difficult?

[Guest]

What certain things do you find difficult?

The concept is to "budget to zero," so any money you are starting with, plus any new income, is supposed to be directed to some category. So, one thing I did was pull in my regular savings account. (It is convenient that you can pull it directly from your banks or other accounts on-line; an improvement over the computer-program based YNAB.) But by doing this, there is this amount of several thousand dollars to be "budgeted." But I do not want to budget that money; it is an emergency cushion that I only access if all hell breaks loose and something came way out of left field that we had to pay for.

 

To circumvent this, I can do one of two things (I think): 1) create a budget category called "Emergency Cushion" and put it in there; or 2) delete that account and just "know" I have money outside the program. (I chose to put it in Emergency Cushion category.) But this is still not a perfect solution. It affects the net worth totals and/or the "income" totals.

 

I also have another thing I'm confused about where I have investment accounts that function like a savings account for big-tocket costs. So, I have them and know that I might access those investment accounts to pay college tuition or something big like that, but I can only either enter them as an investment account (meaning they don't go into the budget) or put them as though they are a savings account, but then I have to "budget" all the money in there as if I'm definitely using it for that. I already had to get around this because I paid DD's fall tuition using some of the money in the investment account. I DO want record of paying for DD's tuition and where that money came from, but I DON'T want to put the whole account into the workig budget. What I did was made an account in both the active budget portion, with the amount I used for tuition, and another in the investment (off-budget) portion with the balance in there. It works, but it's so convoluted!

 

This part makes me feel like I like my paper notebooks better, because I never have to figure out what I meant by XYZ. I just write, "Vanguard blah-Dee-Blah Fund: $23,000; deducted $12,000 for Fall Tuituion; new balance $11,000." Or whatever.

 

What I DO like about YNAb, especially now that it's mobile, is that recording spending is super-easy and very quick. I am less likely to end up with a marathon heap of receipts that I have to write in my notebook, which does take hours. But I don't feel like I can depend on it completely because of these other things that I still want recorded on paper where I can understand exactly what I did and why.

[Guest]

P.S. Sorry that was so long. I don't know how to explain this in a more concise way! :)

[Prairie~Phlox]

We've used Quicken for the 21 years that we've been married. It's always worked well for us.

[ChocolateReignRemix]

Can you tell me more? What do you like about it? Anything you dislike?

--easy to use

--compatible with all of our accounts

--can usually customize as needed

[Georgiana Daniels]

Funny you should ask---one of my recent freelance assignments was writing about Mint.com. It's a pretty good app for budgeting, paying bills and even helps with staying on top of your investment portfolio (but nothing advanced.) The complete review is here. One portion that might be applicable to you is:

 

A Mint money review by Bestcompany.com ranks Mint in second place – behind Mvelopes but ahead of Personal Capital. While Mint and Mvelopes have the same overall score of 6.9, Mint falls behind on the budgeting and goals category, specifically in its lack of a budgeting calendar.

However, the Mint.com review outpaces Mvelopes in the alerts, added features, and free credit score categories.

 

Anyhoo....hope that helps!

[SJ.]

Do these apps need to be on a smart phone to use in public?  For example, can I download to a kindle or ipad, take it with me to the store, and add in the amount I spent without an internet connection?  Hope that makes sense.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

We've used Mint for a few years now, and while I still mostly like it, it's had its share of problems over time. For awhile, one of my Citibank cards was showing transactions for the current month PLUS transactions from the same month one year earlier. That went on for a couple of months, and Mint had no idea how to fix it. There are now two accounts that won't work with Mint, so the info can't be pulled through. Sorting transactions periodically stops working and either nothing happens or it you choose a sorting option and you get some random sort, completely unrelated to what you needed. Mint customer service is responsive if you contact them directly, but they don't always know how to fix the problem you're having. It's still useful, but it frustrates me often enough that I'm contemplating other options. A friend uses YNAB and loves it, but I'm not sure I'm up to the learning curve right now. Short of that, Mint is still the best option I've found.

 

Do these apps need to be on a smart phone to use in public?  For example, can I download to a kindle or ipad, take it with me to the store, and add in the amount I spent without an internet connection?  Hope that makes sense.

 

There's definitely an iPad app for Mint. 

Edited July 31, 2016 by ILiveInFlipFlops

[haleyw329]

We use GoodBudget. It costs us $5 a month.

[Mom2pandc]

I use EveryDollar by Dave Ramsey. It is so simple and sleek. Not a bunch of extra stuff that I don't need. It isn't visually cluttered like some of the others I've looked at. It's easy to use both on the computer and on a smart phone. Both my husband and I can access it to assign transactions, check the budget, or make changes.

I do pay the $99 a year for the plus to have it linked to my bank accounts. However, as long as I have done a budget and assign all the transactions to their appropriate categories, I no longer have to check my bank balance or balance my checkbook. The time savings alone of not doing those things is worth it to me because we use our debit cards a lot. Especially my husband who uses his several times a day during the week. I don't have to worry about overdrafts of our account if I didn't check what he debited and if I have big checks outstanding. It just shows up in the app and I drag and drop it into its category.