Editor’s Note: We originally published this popular list of the best paid and free monthly budgeting tools in March of 2008. A lot has changed since then—a couple of the featured budget tools are no longer available. So here’s an updated—and expanded—list!
We all want to budget better.
That’s why a monthly budget is a crucial part of any financial plan. Budgeting the old fashioned way––with a stack of receipts and a calculator, was a time-consuming bore. But today, dozens of powerful budgeting software programs, spreadsheets, and templates obliterate any excuse for spending without a budget. Some cost just a few dollars a month, others are 100% free. Check them out:
Free Budgeting Software
- Mint. Mint.com is a free Web and mobile budgeting tool. Users can securely link bank accounts and credit cards to Mint, create budgets, and set alerts for when balances are low or spending exceeds set amounts in a certain category. More about Mint. Free.
- MoneyStrands.A Web budgeting tool that links to bank accounts and credit cards and accepts manually or bulk-uploaded transactions from bank accounts. Free.
- Rainy Day Budget. A free, online, manual budget tool. Free.
- GnuCash. Free financial software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Handles small business accounting, too. Free.
- Yodlee MoneyCenter. Free online money management tool that aggregates bank accounts. Free.
Paid Budgeting Software
- You Need a Budget. Personal finance management tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux based on a proprietary four-step budgeting methodology. Free trial, then $59.95.
- Mvelopes. Web and mobile budgeting software program that mimics the physical envelopes-based budgeting system in which you put your cash into envelopes for things like groceries, gas, utilities, etc. $8-$14 monthly.
- PearBudget. “Really simple budgeting”. Free trial, then $3 a month.
- Quicken. A full-featured personal finance management software application for Windows and Mac. $59.99.
- PocketSmith. A Web-based calendar/budget that forecasts your future cash flow. Three plans available: Free, $5 or $12 a month.
Free Budget Spreadsheets
- J. Money’s Financial Snapshot and Budget. Budget spreadsheet combined with net worth (debt and bank account balance summary). Free.
- Four-step Budget Template. A very simple, free spreadsheet from the blog Life After College. Free.
- MoneyShrugged Budget. Broken into categories based on major spending areas (housing, transportation, insurance, etc.) Free.
- Enemy of Debt’s Deluxe Budget. Includes a budget, spending worksheet, check ledger, and more. Free.
- Fiscal Fizzle’s Monthly Report Template. A complete spreadsheet for household financial planning. Free.
- Free Monthly Budget Spreadsheet. Written by yours truly, this spreadsheet helps you manually track not only what you want to spend in the month, but what you spent by day. Free.
Paid Budget Spreadsheets
- Simple Planning Excel Budget Planner A powerful Excel-based budget planner. The site also offers a variety of other Excel-based financial tools Free trial, then $15.95.
- George’s Budget. A budgeting spreadsheet. $19.95.
Other Cool Tools
The following tools aren’t strictly budget tools, but they are related to smart money management.
- Personal Capital. Personal Capital is an exciting newcomer that also aggregates checking and credit accounts, but their real strength lies in aggregating your investment accounts, analyzing your total portfolio, and providing investment recommendations.
- Debt Free Adventure’s How Much Your Debt Costs You. A spreadsheet to help you figure out how much your debt costs in interest each month. Free.
- DebtGoal. An online debt reduction planning application. Like the “Weight Watchers of getting out of debt”. Free trial, then $14.95 a month.
- Shoeboxed. A receipt scanning and organization service. Mail in your receipts in prepaid envelopes and they do the rest. Monthly subscription.
Do you use any of these to write your monthly budget? Or something else? How has it worked for you?
About David E. Weliver
You should also link to YNAB (You Need A Budget)–a strength of this program is that it tracks accumulating sinking funds. –That’s where my system breaks down, but I’m fiddling around with a solution now. If it doesn’t work, I’m getting YNAB.
http://www.youneedabudget.com/index.php
Let it just be stated that I am concerned about privacy and do not like having my financial information stored on more servers than necessary. Partially because of these concerns, I’ve elected to use money management systems stored locally on my own computers.
For those who use Linux, a very popular program is GnuCash. GnuCash allows users to download transaction records directly from their credit and banking institutions (that is, if their online banking and account management supports the common protocol: e.g. Citi lets me download my credit card transactions, whereas my regional bank does not for “security reasons.”) I find that this tool allows me to organize and analyze my expenses intuitively for the nice price of $0.00. GnuCash also works for people outside of the US as well, something I’m not sure of for Microsoft Money or Quicken.
http://www.gnucash.org/ — available for Mac OSX and Windows — is certainly not limited to “… those who use Linux.”
If you enjoy using Excel, you may want to consider a customized Excel file that includes registers (similar to a checkbook to track your accounts), the ability to create your own categories, create a monthly budget and view reports such as budget vs actual in a simple dashboard layout. See:
http://www.georgesbudget.com/
Georges Budget is too restrictive, and the publisher does not address concerns, once he has sold you the goods. One example is that there is only room to post 4 accounts. I have more than 4 bank accounts, then I have a few credit cards. In this program there is no way to add more than 4 accounts.
I suspect I am not alone with my opinion of this template, but since the “blog” feature on georgesbudget.com does not post your comments, I will never know. Interesting that the owner has even gone to the extent of disabling the comment tab on his youtube videos regarding this product.
Dave
http://sites.google.com/site/simpledbudget/
I know that there are a lot of impressive and robust budgeting solutions around, but since my needs are simple … I like things that ARE simple, and free.
I ran across a nifty little program called SimpleD Budget about a year ago when my finances were a mess and I desperately needed something I could use to figure out my spending.
The simplicity is it’s power, in that you can bend it’s functionality to your own needs. The only serious issue is that the print function doesn’t work.
It’s free, it’s easy and you can plan for months ahead if you wish. I’ve tried Quicken online and though I find it impressive, I still want more freedom than it allows. SimpleD lets you do whatever you want, and that’s what I want.
Nate, I wasn’t able to get to the site you linked (insufficient privileges) I personally am a little weary of my info being out on someone else’s server, I mainly use a homemade spreadhsheet (like george’s but not as intense) to track my budget. whatever the tool, tracking a budget is so important!
I use My Portfolio with Bank of America and it provides net worth figures and a budgeting option.
It allows you to assemble all your bank deposit accounts, investments, credit cards, and loans, into a dashboard net worth view. Get this, you can even include non-Bank of America accounts in your net worth presentation. In addition, you can even add Other Assets and Other Liabilities through the “Manual Accounts” feature. This is useful for items that have value, but do not have traditional log-on website such as — the fair market value of your car, art, jewelry, etc., personal loans you owe to family/friends, company reimbursements due you, etc.
To me, My Portfolio is just like mint.com but it is all embedded in the Bank of America website.
Catch: You must participate in Online Banking with Bank of America which means that you must have either an online checking or online savings account.
My first foray into budgeting software took me to Mint. But I didn’t like the way the interface worked, it wasn’t intuitive back then. So I landed on a product called MoneyWell. I believe it may only be for Mac (and now iOS) but it worked and I managed it for more than a year! It completely changed the way I spent money. It also uses the envelope theory. They have a free trial and then you have to pay for it. You might want to check it out if you’re not loving Mint.
Buxfer.com is great! And free! You can tag things, and it gives you pie charts and bar graphs to show you where your money is going! Its simple too!
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