If looking for a daily budget tool that is free …i love Goodbudget app..for keeping track of daily expenses..type in income and it comes with 10 free “envelops.” can get more envelopes for small fee. I have set budget but my income as a nurse fluctuates alot being paid hourly and differentials and overtime and holiday pay so i can set up and adjust as needed. Easy to use …it’ll take too long to describe here but i recommend checking out in google store…it may be bit frustrating for 10 min figuring out to set it up but a little playing with it wont take long…its great for daily budget expenses paid with a report summery tab….i then take that info at end of month and apply info to my pen paper longterm record for year (i hate and dont trust computers…they take too long and are aggravating!????!!)and dump any extra income at end of month in to miscellaneous savings…which i can draw on if need too in case food expenses or car repair one month took more than the budget envelope had in it…
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I’d like to put together a budget after not having one for maybe 18 years. I use Quicken for my checking account and categorize expenses. Is there a way to use Quicken to budget since I already input a lot of data into it?
We used to use Quicken for our household budget (switched to Mint about 4-5 years ago), and it works well. If memory serves, there should be a planning tab. Click on that and you should see “budget.” You’ll be able to create a budget from there. Since you’re already tracking your expenses, an important key to really using Quicken as a budget is to make sure you categorize your transactions according to how you set up the categories with the budget. Then you should be able to check at any point in time and see how you’re doing in each category – if you budgeted $750 for groceries, for example, you’ll be able to see how much you’ve spent at any point in the month compared with that target.
Let me know if you have other questions. I hope that helps. Oh, and you might find my Recommended Spending Guidelines helpful as well. You’ll find them in the Resources tab of this site.
Thanks for the helpful breakdown of different types of budgeting systems.
My wife and I use the envelope budget system for our family budget, but modified somewhat.
We started keeping a budget based on the envelope system back when we spent a summer in Oakland doing an “urban plunge.” We lived in a small household of 5 people for 7 weeks, worked with non-profits and area churches–and had exactly $12.50 per person per week for food, gas, laundry, and pretty much everything else except rent and utilities. This was in the mid 90’s, but, still–that’s not a lot of money. Folks wondered if we would taste any meat that summer…
The household pooled all of the allotted money together and put it in a #10 envelope that we would physically carry around when we went to the grocery store and elsewhere. And, surprisingly, we actually were able to keep to that budget and even enjoy a movie out once.
Once my wife and I got married, we kept with that system for our discretionary budgets: primarily groceries and eating out.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I’m working with a San Francisco web development team and watching people carry smartphones that are starting to do more and more. We knew that the envelope budgeting system really worked to keep a tight budget, and, given the recession, decided to put together a virtual version of the envelope budgeting system that could help folks control their spending. We figured we could eliminate the hassle of carrying physical envelopes *and* allow spouses to share envelopes and record transactions on-the-go–kind of a cross-over envelope and electronic system in your breakdown, with the benefits of each.
We called it the Easy Envelope Budget Aid (EEBA for short). We’re excited that we’re got over 50,000 registered households a little over a year in. Users can record transactions from their Android devices (common ones can be entered in as few as 3 touches) and from our mobile-optimized website. Or they can access EEBA via the full desktop Website. Transactions are automatically sync’ed across both spouses’ Droids plus the website so everybody’s always on the same budgeting page. This video shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cB5q2Luyo
EEBA requires absolutely no personal information–no bank account numbers, no passwords–addressing the security issues that cause some people concern. But, we do allow you to import in QFX and OFX format the statements that you can download from your bank website. And EEBA will help match bank statement transactions with ones you’ve entered yourself. Our website is at https://eebacanhelp.com.
Sounds like a great idea, Dale. This is a great example of the fact that there’s more than one way to budget. The best budget is one that meets our needs.
We use two systems. Part of my check goes into an account used for groceries, clothing, entertainment and other miscellaneous items that my wife manages similar to the envelope system. The rest goes into a different account for all other regular bills that I manage with a customized excel spreadsheet. It’s worked well for us for the past few years!
David, I know they switched how they gather their data somewhat recently and I believe that caused some problems that they acknowledged and said they were fixing. I wonder if that’s the issue you experienced. Regardless, it sounds like it caused you a lot of problems. Thanks for mentioning this.
I started using mint last year around February and was really excited by all the great tools it had, but I was shocked by something that I recently discovered. I was using my receipts to categorize my charges and realized that mint wasn’t downloading all my transactions from my accounts. Specifically, it missed 5 to 10 transactions from my American Express card statement. I’m in the position now, where I thought we were saving all this money, but actually we were not. Mint says they know about the problem and have people working on it, but it made me think twice about trusting this company.
If looking for a daily budget tool that is free …i love Goodbudget app..for keeping track of daily expenses..type in income and it comes with 10 free “envelops.” can get more envelopes for small fee. I have set budget but my income as a nurse fluctuates alot being paid hourly and differentials and overtime and holiday pay so i can set up and adjust as needed. Easy to use …it’ll take too long to describe here but i recommend checking out in google store…it may be bit frustrating for 10 min figuring out to set it up but a little playing with it wont take long…its great for daily budget expenses paid with a report summery tab….i then take that info at end of month and apply info to my pen paper longterm record for year (i hate and dont trust computers…they take too long and are aggravating!????!!)and dump any extra income at end of month in to miscellaneous savings…which i can draw on if need too in case food expenses or car repair one month took more than the budget envelope had in it…
…
Hi Matt,
I’d like to put together a budget after not having one for maybe 18 years. I use Quicken for my checking account and categorize expenses. Is there a way to use Quicken to budget since I already input a lot of data into it?
Thanks,
Tara
Hi Tara –
We used to use Quicken for our household budget (switched to Mint about 4-5 years ago), and it works well. If memory serves, there should be a planning tab. Click on that and you should see “budget.” You’ll be able to create a budget from there. Since you’re already tracking your expenses, an important key to really using Quicken as a budget is to make sure you categorize your transactions according to how you set up the categories with the budget. Then you should be able to check at any point in time and see how you’re doing in each category – if you budgeted $750 for groceries, for example, you’ll be able to see how much you’ve spent at any point in the month compared with that target.
Let me know if you have other questions. I hope that helps. Oh, and you might find my Recommended Spending Guidelines helpful as well. You’ll find them in the Resources tab of this site.
Thanks for letting me know about this — I hadn’t heard of it before.
Thanks for the helpful breakdown of different types of budgeting systems.
My wife and I use the envelope budget system for our family budget, but modified somewhat.
We started keeping a budget based on the envelope system back when we spent a summer in Oakland doing an “urban plunge.” We lived in a small household of 5 people for 7 weeks, worked with non-profits and area churches–and had exactly $12.50 per person per week for food, gas, laundry, and pretty much everything else except rent and utilities. This was in the mid 90’s, but, still–that’s not a lot of money. Folks wondered if we would taste any meat that summer…
The household pooled all of the allotted money together and put it in a #10 envelope that we would physically carry around when we went to the grocery store and elsewhere. And, surprisingly, we actually were able to keep to that budget and even enjoy a movie out once.
Once my wife and I got married, we kept with that system for our discretionary budgets: primarily groceries and eating out.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I’m working with a San Francisco web development team and watching people carry smartphones that are starting to do more and more. We knew that the envelope budgeting system really worked to keep a tight budget, and, given the recession, decided to put together a virtual version of the envelope budgeting system that could help folks control their spending. We figured we could eliminate the hassle of carrying physical envelopes *and* allow spouses to share envelopes and record transactions on-the-go–kind of a cross-over envelope and electronic system in your breakdown, with the benefits of each.
We called it the Easy Envelope Budget Aid (EEBA for short). We’re excited that we’re got over 50,000 registered households a little over a year in. Users can record transactions from their Android devices (common ones can be entered in as few as 3 touches) and from our mobile-optimized website. Or they can access EEBA via the full desktop Website. Transactions are automatically sync’ed across both spouses’ Droids plus the website so everybody’s always on the same budgeting page. This video shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cB5q2Luyo
EEBA requires absolutely no personal information–no bank account numbers, no passwords–addressing the security issues that cause some people concern. But, we do allow you to import in QFX and OFX format the statements that you can download from your bank website. And EEBA will help match bank statement transactions with ones you’ve entered yourself. Our website is at https://eebacanhelp.com.
Sounds like a great idea, Dale. This is a great example of the fact that there’s more than one way to budget. The best budget is one that meets our needs.
Matt,
We use two systems. Part of my check goes into an account used for groceries, clothing, entertainment and other miscellaneous items that my wife manages similar to the envelope system. The rest goes into a different account for all other regular bills that I manage with a customized excel spreadsheet. It’s worked well for us for the past few years!
David, I know they switched how they gather their data somewhat recently and I believe that caused some problems that they acknowledged and said they were fixing. I wonder if that’s the issue you experienced. Regardless, it sounds like it caused you a lot of problems. Thanks for mentioning this.
I started using mint last year around February and was really excited by all the great tools it had, but I was shocked by something that I recently discovered. I was using my receipts to categorize my charges and realized that mint wasn’t downloading all my transactions from my accounts. Specifically, it missed 5 to 10 transactions from my American Express card statement. I’m in the position now, where I thought we were saving all this money, but actually we were not. Mint says they know about the problem and have people working on it, but it made me think twice about trusting this company.