What do you use for a budgeting tool?

[linarex]

Kind of a s/o of the Microsoft Money thread. I'm on a Mac at home and I'm currently using my own excel budget. It works fine, but it's kind of time consuming to update and I would love to just import stuff and have it work rather than all the manual entry I'm doing. I used Quicken back when we got our Mac but I found it completely confusing, and I'm not computer illiterate by any means.

So, if you are on a Mac, what are you using?

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I'm no help ... I have a PC and do all my budgeting (gasp) by hand using pen and paper.

[NastyWoman]

Excel. Have been using my spreadsheet for 5 years now and it really is not a lot of work.

[Kung Fu Panda]

I built a calendar style budget forcasting tool in excel. I just copy paste the months out. I have all my normal expected bills and income in the coming dates. Then I imput the actuals, and non expected expenses. I use the bottom cell of the day to calculate the running balance. It has a day by day balance so that I can determine how my spending today affects my balance xx days out in the future. I use this only for my checking account. Savings and Investments - Deposit it and forget it

[Gardening Grandma]

if you are on a Mac, what are you using?

I made the transition from a PC to a Mac last spring. I've used Quicken for years (along with an excel spreadsheet). When I got my Mac, I also got Parallels which allows me to run Windows on it simultaneously. So I still use my old Quicken. I switched from the excel spreadsheet to Numbers - which the Mac made very easy to do.

In addition to buying Parallels, I also had to purchase a copy of Windows, but I'm pretty happy with the result. I did try Quicken for Mac, but it's Quicken Lite - none of the features that I like about the Windows version.

There is a program for the Mac called "iBank", but I know nothing about it and am getting tired of having to learn new software....

[The J]

I don't budget. My savings goals are automatically funded through scheduled transfers. My bills (except for my common charges) are all on autopay. Whatever's left over is mine to blow through however I'd like.

[allysgrandma]

I use YNAB for budgeting and Quicken for keeping track of checkbooks and printing reports.

[haapai]

I did what Tom does and found it extremely helpful. The calendar that I built doesn't look a thing like a the one hanging on the wall but it doesn't have holes in it from all the erasures either. If you put the forward-looking cash balances into a line graph, it's pretty intuitive, especially if you also use a savings account to save for the big irregular things (semi-annual automobile insurance premiums in my case).

I've always been a little embarassed by my calendar. When I built it, things were extremely tight and I built it to figure out if I was headed for default. I certainly didn't have the cushion necessary to go all-automatic. I've also wondered if there was some way of achieving the same result using off-the-shelf software but never gotten around to doing the necessary legwork or finding the courage to ask.

[Kung Fu Panda]

I have never had any luck with software in truly forecasting checking accounts. The budgeted amounts never seem to correlate and then it ends up double counting budgeted amounts and actuals..just never could get it to work. I use Mint.com as well, and this brings in my total NW, with debt, savings and investments. It has the reporting features to allow for graphs of spending habits and budget analysis. Mint has alerts of large deposits, withdraws and interest, as well as an Iphone app.

[Clifford]

We have everything that can be on autopay, and write 1 check per month to the city. For the rest we use a Discover card (I know) which we pay online. We get cash back, and they have a great tool called their Spend Analyzer that can show you spending by category and date ranges for the last 24 months, including the current cycle. It does the work of Quicken for me.

[dancinmama]

What do you use for a budgeting tool?

My brain. Here's my budget and it's REALLY easy. Don't buy anything that you don't REALLY need. Splurge once in a while. If you are restricted by income, prioritize.

When I use the word "budget" I never mean a literal budget.

[WolfNoMate]

Been using an Excel spreadsheet for over 10 yrs. Tweek it a little as needed and roll on. I love the flexibility it gives so I can play "what if"...like what happens if I raise my 401 deduction to 27% or increase the IRA another $100 a month. Getting paid 26 times a year plus 12 retirement paydays makes most monthly setups a pain to use.

[Deleted]

I've been using the same excel spreadsheet for 4 years. I don't think my way of doing it would work for most people, but it keeps things straight for me. My biggest problem before putting things into a spreadsheet was knowing how much of the money in my checking account was truly discretionary and how much should go to bills that would be due shortly.

Each pay period is a column, each column is color coded, and the color associates with an expense color on the left most column. Example Yellow pay periods I put away the money for my car insurance, Blue pay periods Netflix and Life insurance, Green items get saved for every pay period.

It really isn't a budget though. I don't have a budget. All savings is deducted before it gets to checking and this is more of a management tool for my checking account.

[Plain Old Petunia]

I use Mint. It is free and I find it incredibly useful. It doesn't take much effort to get it set up, either. mint.com

[linarex]

Thanks for the input. I've mostly been using it for forecasting capabilities as I like seeing far out what is going on with our checking account. Maybe I should have been more clear - I have a budget but I wanted to know what people were using to track their expenses/income.

[thyme4change]

I just stop spending when I run out of money.

[TrixAre4Kids]

I've been playing with Mint since June or so. I really like it's ability to go out and tap all my accounts so I have a quick 'at a glance' to see where I am, but so far I'm annoyed having to input separate transactions for my taxes etc every two weeks. If I have to do all that input, I believe for 2011 I'll go back to my trusty ole excel ss, where I've got my own version of the 60% solution budget set up

[mudflap81]

The problem I've had with Mint is from my bank, it won't update. The problem is on the bank side.

[thyme4change]

I would say that at least half the time at least 2 of my accounts don't update on Mint.

[Kung Fu Panda]

I had some issues with Mint, until they figured out that ING was asking for a security question qnswer. They have now updated the login to include security answers, and I havnt had an issue since. BTW, I don't have a vested interest in Mint, I have just had good luck with it. My biggest complaint was that I couldn't manage multiple checking accounts, which they recently added, so now it seems easy to me.

[Deleted]

I've been a Quicken user since the days of DOS.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Jan 4, 2011 14:34:08 GMT -5 @linarex said:

Thanks for the input. I've mostly been using it for forecasting capabilities as I like seeing far out what is going on with our checking account. Maybe I should have been more clear - I have a budget but I wanted to know what people were using to track their expenses/income.

Mint will track whatever categories you set up. You can use the data to make pie charts, compare across time, etc. Nifty!

[aprbrew244]

I currently use an excell spreadsheet. Now I am going to piggyback a question that relates to budgeting.

How detailed are the categories in your budget? Utilities one category or seperated into electric, cable, internet, phone, ect.? Food and dining combined? Just wondering what others do.

[Kung Fu Panda]

Mine are detailed then summed to a group, not that the budget actually needs to be. I have a group of Home Expenses Rolled Up: Rent, Elect, Cable.... Then a Major group of Food: Dining out, Groceries; Debt;Savings;Entertainment...

[Plain Old Petunia]

I like to keep mine broad. I have "utilities", not gas, water, phone, etc. It works for me.

[Gardening Grandma]

How detailed are the categories in your budget? Utilities one category or seperated into electric, cable, internet, phone, ect.? Food and dining combined? Just wondering what others do.

Mine are detailed enough that I have about 20 categories. For example, I have "utilities", but "utilities" has subcategories for "elect", "H2O", "phone & internet", "Propane".... I also have a "Dogs" category, but it has sub categories as well ("vet", "food" and "other"). "Groceries" is simply food. Liquor, Household stuff, dining out, are all separate. But I group "Books, subscriptions and entertainment into one category. I also group Personal Care and clothing into one category.

As far as online budgeting/tracking tools, I don't really want to put our finances online. I prefer Quicken for tracking/forecasting and Numbers (the Mac version of Excel) for the end of the month report.

[mrsgords]

I've used Quicken for 11 years now for budgeting, and tracking spending and investments. I have the '08 Deluxe version. Works for me.

[TrixAre4Kids]

I'm with TexasTom and Daphne. I have a detail page where each grocery/dining/gasoline etc purchase is noted and then a main page for each month where stuff get summarized.

[rumples]

I currently use Quicken '08 via Parallels, but just today received a notice that as of this April, it will no longer be able to update my accounts via direct download. I believe that this will be the end of my relationship with Quicken - one that has existed since the early 90s. Don't get me wrong. I definitely do not begrudge a company for leaving old versions behind so that they can sell new ones. If they didn't, they wouldn't be around. I simply believe that I will be able to track everything that I want/need to in an excel spreadsheet with just a bit more time and effort and without the need for Parallels/Windows. I have been on a mission this past year to rid myself of Windows-only programs and have just about gotten there.

[Gardening Grandma]

I also use Quicken 2008 via Parallels and got the same notice. I've tried Quicken Essentials for Mac (2010) and really disliked its limitations, so I plan to upgrade to Quicken 2011 for Windows and continue to use Parallels.
I'd prefer to migrate to Mac only software, but I haven't yet found a Mac equivalent to Quicken for personal finance, so this seems to be the best option for me.