Author Topic: Free alternative to YNAB (called Goodbudget)  (Read 13133 times)

Milspecstache

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Free alternative to YNAB (called Goodbudget)
« on: March 07, 2014, 10:03:08 AM »
I've been an Excel budgeter since 2001.  Really good at setting up a budget before the month and accomplishing goals.  Not so go at tracking expenditures day-by-day so I decided to do a trial run of YNAB.  I really liked the interface and particularly the smart phone app that allowed geographic recording of expenses (makes it easier on repeat visits to stores).  However, I didn't want to pay the cost of YNAB and also didn't like the constraints of the program (wanted more freedom, didn't want to keep a month's pay in my checking acct).

Since I don't need a long term planning tool (as I prefer Excel) I went and found a smartphone app that allows the geographic tagging of locations and also allows me to set up envelopes for each budget item, enter it as I spend, and it also displays a bar that shows where my spending should be for that month.

It is called Goodbudget.
https://goodbudget.com/

schimt

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Re: Free alternative to YNAB (called Goodbudget)
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2014, 10:30:28 AM »
I have never used YNAB, but isn't it easier to just use a credit card, get the rewards and let mint track your spending automatically. You can even setup budget categories

schoopsthecat

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Re: Free alternative to YNAB (called Goodbudget)
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2014, 05:18:55 PM »
I've been using goodbudget since January, and it's great...and totally free.  There is a paid version that allows more envelopes, but it's totally unnecessary.  Great app and website.

norvilion

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Re: Free alternative to YNAB (called Goodbudget)
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2014, 07:54:51 AM »
We used to use this a lot, and it worked really well for being conscious of how much we spent. Since we used it like we would use quicken or something it also allowed us to create virtual accounts without having to go through the bank headaches (in fact we still use it that way so personal spending it guilt-free with accounts merged into family). After a while Mint did end up being the way to go, was tiresome after a year or two to always have to record every expense even if we'd become fully aware of amounts.

Sounded cooler when it was EEBA though :P