Budgeting Tools (Other Than Mint)

[OrionGrad]

I know we've talked a lot about budgeting apps, and people always recommend Mint. I'm looking for something closer to a basic spreadsheet, but with more features. I want to be able to plot out our expected expenses during fellowship (and eventually attending-hood), and then compare that to our income so I can see where we'll stand and gauge how much we can afford in rent, etc. I don't want to have to import all my bank accounts to do this.

Any recommendations? Is a spreadsheet my only option?

[poky]

Haven't used any of them, but a quick google came up with this, which looks promising: http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/budgets.html

[JDAZ11]

I just have a great spread sheet for projected and actual monthly budget. The downside is it's just a month, and it doesn't paste well into new tabs, so I have like 20 separate files.

Our bank also has a mint like app, but honestly it doesn't always work all that well. I'm not sure if mint is better at attaching categories to spending, but constantly going in there to update it is kind of a pain the butt.

[OrionGrad]

Thanks! Those budget templates seem like a good place to start.

[Thirteen]

YNAB dot com.
They also have podcasts!


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[OrionGrad]

YNAB dot com.
They also have podcasts!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you pay for it, or is there a free version?

[spotty_dog]

I seem to recall MissCrabette is also a big fan of YNAB? I looked into it once, there is a free trial and then it's paid -- but it sounds like it's worth the cost. It just doesn't fit our style of budgeting (we pay ourselves first and then play it fairly fast and loose with the rest.)

During residency I kept a spreadsheet broken down by fixed expenses then variable expenses. But...for things like deciding how much rent to pay...IMO that's kind of the *first* figure you work in, the one that determines the others, not really the other way around. Keep that figure low (about 20% of net for total housing costs would be ideal) and the rest, including a little buffer for upcoming expenses and whatnot, should follow.

[poky]

Oh, right, YNAB. I have several friends who are VERY into using YNAB. It does cost, but as SD says, it's probably worth it if it works for you. if you use the trial and like it, I could hook you up with my friends who use it, too. Let me know!

[OrionGrad]

During residency I kept a spreadsheet broken down by fixed expenses then variable expenses. But...for things like deciding how much rent to pay...IMO that's kind of the *first* figure you work in, the one that determines the others, not really the other way around. Keep that figure low (about 20% of net for total housing costs would be ideal) and the rest, including a little buffer for upcoming expenses and whatnot, should follow.

Our budget is on auto-pilot right now. Our expenses have stayed about the same for 4.5 years, so I'm out of practice with budgeting. We still have 7 more months until fellowship begins, but I'm trying to wrap my head around all the new expenses (things like preschool, gym memberships, higher electricity bills, health insurance, etc.) that we'll have living in a new state. I'm hoping to get as many of those things nailed down as possible before we start looking at places to rent for the year.