Online Budgeting Tools for All

Do you want to get a better grip on your household finances by creating a budget but don’t know where to start? A lot of people have felt this way, including me. It’s overwhelming and frankly a little depressing at first to think about having to hunker down and really rein in your spending; but it’s totally doable and once you’ve got your groove, having a household budget will rock your world. It gives you peace, control, and lets you save for the things that matter. Look for more upcoming posts discussing how to get going with a budget. The first step, however, is to find a reliable way of tracking your spending.

It’s so much simpler to use your computer to track expenses than pen and paper. With the current tools available, like syncing up your bank accounts, paying bills online, analytical features that show you where your money is really going and how you could improve, as well as the basic addition and subtraction, it is well worth a bit of a learning curve to teach yourself to use budgeting tools. You can do it! Here are some that come highly recommended:

• Mint: Quicken used to get a lot of hate for being overly complicated to use but Quicken made a smart choice by acquiring Mint. It has the standard budgeting tools but also uses some fancy algorithms to analyze spending trends and offer suggestions for ways to save money. You can set a budget, pay down debt, and build your savings.  It’s also free. Rock on.
• Buxfer. This is free, looks very easy to use, and seems fun to boot. If you have roomies with whom you’re sharing expenses, it offers a nifty tool to make divvying up those costs easier and tracking IOUs. They are utilizing new stuff like iPhone and Facebook apps. It’s innovative but easy to use.
• BudgetTracker: another online tool that syncs bank accounts, lets you create a budget and do pretty much everything that Quicken does. It received positive reviews from sources like the Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger.
• YNAB - You Need a Budget is the company and they received rave reviews from reputable sources like CNN. It’s $60 bucks but it looks user friendly and works off of YNAB’s 4 main principles that help you get back on track. It looks promising but I’m still reticent to pay for what I can seem to get for free at other places.
• Get Rich Slowly is an awesome site. The publisher shares a very low-tech but easy to use spending sheet that you can get in both Excel or Google Docs formats.
• Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe is a lot like Quicken. It’s also not cheap but is another option you might consider if you want a lot of bells and whistles.
• Your bank – our bank includes budgeting help and syncs all of our accounts, even ones with other lending institutions. I haven’t really tested it yet but it’s a solid option.
• PearBudget. Do you love Excel? Then this is the program for you. You can try it for free for 30 days and after that it’s $3 a month. It looks simpler to use than options like Quicken so for technophobes this could be a smart choice.

Don’t be scared! Dig in, explore, and get going. Good luck!