Looking for a fairly customizable budgeting program

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve tried Quicken and it irritates the hell out of me - it’s actually got too much functionality and is not streamlined (for my brain, anyway).

I need something better than my own excel spreadsheet but short of Quicken, that I can synch bank account data to. I don’t really need to synch multiple accounts, but it would be handy.

I’m looking for something where I can customize the categories fairly finely and not have to wade through lists of kid and business categories that I’ll never use. Being able to delete/hide pre-loaded categories would be useful, and if it can recognize recurring transactions and auto-categorize that would be optimum.

I do not want a phone app - or at least if there is an app I also need a fully functional desktop program because that’s what I use 99.9% of the time.

I don’t mind paying a bit for it, but a free trial would be nice. Ease of cancellation is probably asking too much though …

Any recommendations?

2

I’ve been looking for an alternative to Quicken (that I’ve used for 30 years). Because they’ve gone subscription/cloud based. I’m going to try gnucash when I decide I haven’t been frustrated enough lately and need to learn a new program.

3

I use YNAB. It does zero based envelope budgeting, and it does it very well.

It has a web app as the primary use tool with phone / tablet apps as secondary tools.

Its categories are fully customisable and includes the ability to hide or delete unwanted categories. Deleting a category means that categorised spending must be recategorised while hiding is more like archiving, you can’t see it but it’s there along with associated historical information.

It syncs bank accounts but only in North America and parts of Europe (recent update). Being in New Zealand, I manually enter everything.

It has a free 34 day trial and you can generally get an extension to the trial if you’re on the fence.

It supports a budgeting method and if you don’t wish to use that method it’s probably not for you. There is some room for going against the method but ultimately it’s smoothest to either embrace it or go with something else.

It costs $98.99 (USD) per year or a bit more if paying monthly. There are no subscription tiers, it’s either all or nothing.

They have fantastic support, in my experience.

There may be a significant learning curve with it depending on your previous experience and expectations. I had no issues with it at all but I’m on a few associated forums and there is definitely a barrier there causing some new and experienced users to be confused about why it’s doing something.

Last year the price went up a little bit for new users and a lot for legacy users. We had been enjoying a significant discount and are now paying double our old price. I left YNAB in search of another system that followed the same envelope budgeting system. I gave up after about six months, realising that no other budget system does that particular method quite as well, and came back to YNAB.

Bottom line. It’s not cheap. It’s very good at what it does but you need to be onboard with the underlying system.

Edit: A number of other apps I wanted to try weren’t available outside the USA so I couldn’t test them.

4

That’s really helpful, thanks! YNAB is one of the one’s I’d been scanning, and you’re right that the cost made me set it aside as a low ‘maybe’. It’s got a good long test period though, so it’s probably worth a try. Who knows, a more rigid system may be just the thing!

5

I’ll give this a shot too, I think. It might be more than I want to tackle but it looks interesting. Price is good too!

6

I was always an old-school Excel spreadsheet budgeter because I wanted it to function in a specific way, and apps like Quicken didn’t flex to my needs. I was always fairly successful at staying in my lane, but my methods were more present-focused and not so much future-focused.

My sister obsessively talks about YNAB so I gave it a shot. I’m now focused on years down the road with money stashed in those “envelopes” for all manner of things important and menial, long-term and immediate, and hardly feel a squeeze. I’m much more mindful about spending, only because it’s kind of fun to “win” by staying in the green while also filling those other “envelopes” for discretionary spending and future savings goals while having all my short- and long-term requirements covered. Good reporting functions too.

YNAB’s focus is “giving every dollar a job” so that there’s no false sense of money to blow when you haven’t considered that random yearly subscription expense that’s coming up or the desire for an overseas vacation year after next or Christmas or graduation gifts or that upcoming wedding etc, etc, etc. You set goals and YNAB puts you on track with contributions. You can flex on where your money is utilized, but YNAB will recalibrate to keep you tracking with your goals.

All categories, goals, and “envelopes” are created by me (but they do have some suggestions on recommended approaches). Their tutorial videos are informative, engaging, sometimes hilarious. And you can nerd out as much or as little as you want with it.

I was a member when the price doubled, and it’s worked so well for me that I just adjusted my savings goal for the new subscription amount and don’t even notice it.

7

I hesitate to recommend Personal Capital, and I was hesitant at first, but I got so sick of Mint, and some of the others like YNAB are good for some people, but not the level of detail I wanted.

I must say, though, that after a year of using Personal Capital, I find it is pretty close to what I want.

The GOOD:

  • user-definable categories, though it comes with a good, sane starter set
  • reliable (for me) linking to major credit cards, banks
  • an ignorable feature: a great focus on total assets/wealth in a dashboardy way
  • easy to use, pleasing UI and presentation

The BAD:

  • you can’t set category budgets, only a total monthly spend target
  • the above may be a deal-killer for you

I’m hoping to retire next year, and while I would indeed like to set category targets (like: restaurants: $250; groceries: $500, etc.), the really important thing, ultimately, is the monthly spend, and is it within budget.

So, for me, it works.

It’s free.
In the “how do they make money” department: they WILL try to hook you up with one of their financial advisors. All you have to say is you aren’t interested. But if you want, you could use a burner phone number or some-such. Once I told them (on the phone) I wasn’t interested, they’ve never called again.