{"id":226365,"date":"2018-01-05T10:14:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T18:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=226365"},"modified":"2023-09-24T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T15:21:53","slug":"best-budgeting-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/best-budgeting-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Best budgeting apps of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>YNAB: You Need a Budget Review<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you’re ready to account for where every cent of your money goes, You Need a Budget<\/a> could work for you. The app is based on the premise of “giving every dollar a job,” meaning you budget for every expense — fixed, discretionary or otherwise. Want to buy a new purse or pair of shoes? If your monthly clothing budget is $100, then you may not be able to afford it this month. Friends want to double date at that trendy new Italian restaurant? It may not be in your $200 dining out budget.
\n\"You<\/a>
\nThe app makes budgeting straightforward, allowing you to see how much over or under you are for a particular line item. But it’s best for people who want to get serious about how much they actual spend and where they may need to make sacrifices to achieve a larger goal.<\/p>\n

What I Liked<\/h3>\n

Zero-based budgeting is tough, but I can see its value. You have to account for every dollar coming in, either using it to cover monthly household expenses, pay off debt, for dining out and for what YNAB calls “quality of life” expenses like vacation. During this process, I realized that I’m not as good a budgeter as I thought. I do a good job of tracking our spending after the fact, but I could improve when it comes to setting aside money for specific purposes — basically being more financially proactive. For example, before using this app, I had no idea how much my husband and I spent each month dining out and we never really set aside a specific amount for this purpose. It was more like “we’ll eat out no more than two times a week.” I also had no gauge of my own discretionary spending, since this money comes out of my personal account. Using the tool allowed me to see that we spend less than $200 a month eating out, but that I need to keep a better eye on my discretionary spending for things like beauty and hair products and anything from Amazon.com (Amazon Prime admittedly has turned me into a shopping junkie). We plan to buy a house within a few years, so YNAB allowed me to see that these are two areas where we (or I) could curb spending and put that additional money toward a down payment. Actually seeing the budget also showed me that we could be saving more. We have more cushion than we need in our account for household expenses, so it might be better to put more of that money toward retirement or paying down my student loans.<\/p>\n

Hmmm, Not So Much<\/h3>\n

The set-up process. Before you set up the mobile app, you had to set everything up on desktop. This took me several days because I had difficulty importing information from my bank account.
\n\"YNAB<\/a>
\nAfter some back and forth with YNAB’s customer service, we figured out that the issue was the security settings on my Bank of America account. I had it set up to enter a passcode for every login. I had to remove this security feature to import my transactions into the YNAB app. However, even after it was set up, my transactions weren’t regularly imported. While I troubleshooted this, I had to manually add each of my transactions. I re-authenticated my bank account for a second time, but even after this it didn’t work. I wish this process was a lot less cumbersome. In spite of this hassle, YNAB’s customer service was awesome. Every time I had a question or technical difficulty I received a response the same day or within 24 hours. Once I got in and started using the app, it was pretty user-friendly. YNAB also has plenty of helpful videos and user guides on its site, plus you can attend a free webinar. These self-service options cover most of what you need to navigate the tool or tackle certain issues.<\/p>\n

What Others are Saying<\/h3>\n

Many users say they like the ability to “look under the hood” of their finances and get more visibility into their actual spending. Most of the complaints have to do with the new cost ($5 a month) for the upgraded version of YNAB and all the manual entry required. For some users, it’s just too laborious. One Amazon user said: “Garbage. This app is 100% manual. What’s the difference between this and an excel sheet?”<\/p>\n

Good For:<\/h3>\n

YNAB<\/a> is great for families, especially when you have long-term goals like buying a house or getting out of debt. It’s also been beneficial for me as a newlywed who has recently merged my finances with my husband. The app gives you more visibility into how you actually spend and whether the budget you’ve set is realistic. It also gives you more accountability, because having to add transactions on a monthly basis or see them imported from your bank makes you keenly aware of where you’re failing or succeeding financially.<\/p>\n

Not Good For:<\/h3>\n

Anyone who isn’t mentally prepared or doesn’t have the time or patience for zero-based budgeting.<\/p>\n

Category<\/h3>\n

Budgeting (Free or Paid)<\/p>\n

Cost\/Device<\/h3>\n

This app is available for free download, but the desktop software is $5 a month and you must be a paid YNAB user. However, YNAB offers a 34-day free trial for new users. The app can be used on an Android device as well as iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.<\/p>\n

Final Score<\/h3>\n

8.5 out of 10<\/p>\n

<\/span>Mint.com Review<\/span><\/h2>\n

In the old days you had to wait to get that monthly statement from your financial institution to see how much money you had coming in, and how much money turned around and went out. Today all that information is on-demand and contained within your smartphone — but which apps are best to manage all that data?<\/p>\n

In this installment of our ongoing series, we check out Mint.<\/p>\n

App Overview<\/h3>\n

Mint is a free personal finance app that allows you to track your spending, budget, and generally keep tabs on your money in one easy location. It has been around for a long time in Internet years — it was launched in 2006 and acquired by Intuit in 2009.<\/p>\n

What I Liked<\/h3>\n

I love that Mint tells me when funds are available in my accounts — I have money coming in monthly from multiple sources, large amounts and small amounts, and it is so handy to know when that money is available. It also makes note of large-ticket items we have written a check for. It tracks money in versus money out (sometimes eliciting a ‘yikes’), shows you where your money is going (categories like bills & utilities, entertainment, auto).<\/p>\n

I receive periodic email updates as well, with information on various aspects of our financial health. The last one noted “Your net worth decreased $2,545.44 since last week.” WHAT?<\/p>\n

Hmmm, Not So Much<\/h3>\n

Getting started was a pretty heavy lift. You have to sync all your accounts to the app (it is heavily encrypted and secure) and then you have to create budgets in a multitude of categories ranging from auto insurance to gas to Internet to coffee shops and charitable donations. I nearly had carpal tunnel by the time I was done.<\/p>\n

Additionally, I keep getting pop-ups and emails suggesting I am paying too much for car insurance and urging me to visit a website where I can shop for better rates. It has a hard-sell feel that I don’t like.<\/p>\n

What Others are Saying<\/h3>\n

Reviews are fairly positive, noting the simplicity of using the app as a major selling point. A recent review by InvestorJunkie.com on noted “Mint.com’s service seems to be more focused on catering to the masses. It’s very strong with budgeting and tracking expenses, but its investing area is simplistic at best.” Said PCMag.com: “Don’t mistake it for accounting software, though. It’s not meant for reconciling transactions. Rather, Mint helps you keep a vigilant eye on your accounts and transactions to get insight into your spending and saving habits.”<\/p>\n

Good For:<\/h3>\n

Mint is great for tracking your spending, and how it compares to your revenue. It also makes it easy to see if you are overspending in any discretionary categories, and gives you a heads up if it thinks you are spending too much on a non-discretionary area, like car insurance.<\/p>\n

Not Good For:<\/h3>\n

Mint is not for those who want to track their investments — it’s a budgeting app.<\/p>\n

Category<\/h3>\n

Personal finance<\/p>\n

Cost\/Device<\/h3>\n

Free – Apple (including Apple Watch) and Android availability<\/p>\n

Final Score<\/h3>\n

8 out of 10<\/p>\n

<\/span>Goodbudget Review<\/span><\/h2>\n

The prevailing wisdom is that people spend more when they have a debit or credit card in their hand. Every swipe feels like free money until you get your monthly statement.<\/p>\n

Enter the envelope system. You put just enough cash in designated envelopes and when the money’s gone, it’s gone — the idea being that making your spending tangible will produce better financial habits.<\/p>\n

Goodbudget<\/a>, formerly known as Easy Envelope Budget Aid, has taken this old-school, pen-and-paper system and made it digital. You allocate money to certain envelopes each month, whether it be gas, utilities, or your mortgage. You can also account for annual or irregular expenses<\/a> like a family vacation or re-registering your car. Add your monthly income and enter each time you spend money into the app and the amount will be subtracted from that respective envelope’s total.<\/p>\n

Goodbudget’s overarching ethos is that it helps people spend money in a way that aligns with their values. It also makes budgeting pretty straightforward — albeit with some monthly legwork that may turn off anyone who isn’t fully committed.<\/p>\n

What I Liked<\/h3>\n

I’ve never been a devotee of the cash-envelope system. (Something about carrying envelopes around with large amounts of money in them just seems old school and unsafe to me.) However, taking this approach online helps me see its value. I previously wrote about the challenges of zero-based budgeting<\/a>, but this approach seems a lot easier. You designate specific amounts for specific envelopes and enter transactions every time you spend. Goodbudget also keeps a running tally of how much you have left in each envelope.<\/p>\n

You can refill envelopes progressively each month or the app will automatically re-populate your monthly envelopes at the beginning of the month with the same amounts from the previous month. Goodbudget also has an envelope-transfer feature, so you can rob Peter to pay Paul if there are any overages in a particular category. Goodbudget says envelope transfer is useful if you have multiple income streams, so I can see how this feature is beneficial for self-employed people like me who deal with a variable income. There’s also a category for unallocated money. The money can sit in that category or you can reallocate it to other monthly, annual or irregular envelopes — without the pressure of giving every dollar a job.<\/p>\n

One of the best features of the app are the reports, where you track spending by envelope and can view income vs. spending. The spending-by-envelope report includes a pie chart that gives you a visual of what expenses take up the largest share of your budget. (There’s also an itemized list below it with percentages for each category.) The income-vs.-spending report is a color-coded bar chart categorized by month. This also provides a great visual for users, allowing them to see spending trends.<\/p>\n

Hmm, Not So Much<\/h3>\n

I wish there was more automation so I could see more easily if the amounts I put in the envelopes actually aligned with my monthly expenses, especially for variable items like utilities.<\/p>\n

There’s too much manual work. You have to add transactions manually each time you spend money, entering details such as the date of the transaction, the payee, the amount, and to which envelope it belongs. It would be so much easier if Goodbudget imported these transactions from your bank directly and then allowed you to sort or make corrections to them once they’re in the system. On the other hand, I can see where doing the data entry yourself makes you reflect on how you spend your money. That might work for some folks; I just found it tedious.<\/p>\n

I also didn’t like that the free version lets you add only 10 monthly envelopes, and that you only get one account and two devices. In addition, this version only keeps one year of history stored on the app; so if you don’t switch to Goodbudget Plus, which costs $5 a month, you could lose all this valuable intel. The premium version comes with unlimited envelopes and unlimited accounts. Up to five devices can access the information and the app stores five years’ worth of your financial history. For $45 a year, it’s worth the investment. (Goodbudget offers a discount for an annual subscription too.) I just wish there was a little more flexibility with the free version, but you get what you pay for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What Others are Saying<\/h3>\n

Goodbudget currently has a 4.3 star rating in Google Play. Many of the positive reviews tout the app’s user-friendliness and say that it actually has helped them save money.<\/p>\n

“…I am able to go without any cash since the app allows me to track exactly what I have in the bank!” said one user.<\/a> “I have made serious changes to my spending habits due to the report ‘spending by payee.’ I was spending almost 20% of my paycheck at a local gas station and had no idea!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the flip side, other users say the app would be much better if it had more customizable features. Others recently complained it was buggy and crashed every time they tried to use it.<\/p>\n

Good For:<\/h3>\n