Budgeting

[scrub-jay]

How does it do with loans and tuition payments? Budget plans always blow up with tuition payments since they are not really predictable "You are $5500 over your budgeted amount"

[MissCrabette]

It's an envelope system, so you accumulate money in the loan/tuition envelope in the months leading to the payment, and then it's simply taken out.

I like that I can save up my money in a category to splurge later down the road if I so choose, but I can also move it all or part of it to savings or any other envelope. It's pretty neat, actually.

[SoonerTexan]

I did the same thing by opening multiple savings accounts at our bank...the teller always gets a little bug eyed when they pull up our accounts though, especially since I'm still tied to my parents account from way back in high school

[spotty_dog]

While mints errors are annoying, I trust them as much as you can any corporation with my info because they are owned by Intuit...if you use turbotax, they are owned by the same people.

I trust Intuit with my info, and that's pretty much the only reason I signed up in the first place. We've used Quicken for decades. However, I realized I don't trust Intuit to keep my info safely on their servers and out of the hands of the unsavory, which is why I left. Web-based services are a brave new world for them, and I believe they are still having growing pains with regards to learning what they don't know about this business model. Their 10-K filing for 2011 is fascinating, BTW.

[spotty_dog]

I hate that they're not upfront about that. They've changed their pricing structure not too long ago when they started offering a free version. A quick chat with one of their reps (available 24/7) tells me it's $9.95/month, $95/year, or $329 for lifetime membership. I bought the lifetime membership a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.

If you're at all curious, use the trial. There's a bit of a steep learning curve. They're also notorious for charging your card the moment the trial expires and not bending the rules on refunding that money. Personally, I have no problem with that, but I know it angered a lot of people.

I'm still using the old version. I don't think the new one is quite polished enough for prime time yet.

Ouch. I see why they don't disclose it. I like what you've described but that price is way too rich for my blood. :\

I've found a lot of recommendations lately for "You Need a Budget". That one has a one-time cost of $60, which is still $$ but tempting enough to do the trial and see if it would be worth that to me. But it doesn't interface with bank websites, you're meant to enter transactions on a smartphone when you make the purchase -- having two people making purchases, only one of whom is really interested in budgeting, and owning zero smartphones between us, makes that a less than ideal solution. Hrm.

[SuzySunshine]

Alison, I have a feeling you and I would use it for very similar reasons.

I like Quicken Essentials for Mac - and yes its the same company as Mint but I've tried Mint and its nothing like Quicken for Mac. I've done the trial version of mvelopes, I've done the trial of YNAB but I've just never been able to get them to do what I do on Quicken. My only complaint about Quicken is that I wish it would sync with an iphone app so that I could access it on the go - that is why I tried Mint but hated it.

The Pear Budget that was mentioned is interesting to me, I may give it a try. Good luck with your hunt.

[spotty_dog]

I like Quicken Essentials for Mac

We just switched from Quicken to Quicken Essentials when we had to upgrade our OS. But I think we can't connect our credit card account to Quicken without paying a monthly fee to the bank, and anyway DH really doesn't want the CC on Quicken. :\ I have to admit I loved having Mint aggregate everything -- checking, savings, credit -- and categorize with a few clicks. Hrm.

[SuzySunshine]

Your bank charges you, really? That sucks! I have all of my cards linked free, I auto update every day. I hope you find something that works for you. He doesn't want the CC online? I guess I could see that.

[spotty_dog]

No, he is just set in his ways. He likes to see the credit card charges as a check drawn on the checking account and nothing more; he doesn't want the transactions cluttering up the way he uses Quicken. He just eyeballs the cc bill to make sure spending is within reasonable bounds. So for budgeting, I've always had to do my own thing separately from Quicken.

But yeah, I was looking at the site (usbank) for ways to access account information, and basically your choices are to download each account manually (into a spreadsheet format or Quicken format) and then import it, or else sign up for Internet Access at $3.95 per month to permit Quicken to download the data directly. Boo.

[SuzySunshine]

Boo is right - yuck!

[MissCrabette]

Have you guys looked at LearnVest?

[spotty_dog]

Have you guys looked at LearnVest?

Looking it up now!

[SuzySunshine]

That is one good thing about these discussions I now have two new ones to look at

[SuzySunshine]

And this is another one I bookmarked but haven't had time to investigate.

http://www.moneydance.com/

[spotty_dog]

I hate that they're not upfront about that. They've changed their pricing structure not too long ago when they started offering a free version. A quick chat with one of their reps (available 24/7) tells me it's $9.95/month, $95/year, or $329 for lifetime membership. I bought the lifetime membership a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.

If you're at all curious, use the trial. There's a bit of a steep learning curve. They're also notorious for charging your card the moment the trial expires and not bending the rules on refunding that money. Personally, I have no problem with that, but I know it angered a lot of people.

I'm still using the old version. I don't think the new one is quite polished enough for prime time yet.

You know, the more I think of it the more this sounds like a solid and helpful tool. Maybe even worth the *gulp* hundreds of dollars. I'm probably going to do the free trial...