Goodbudget Budget Planner

Have tried many apps and software for budgeting purposes and this one by far is the best. I have been doing budgeting on paper for years and never could find one that would suit my needs and feel comfortable enough to replace the paper budget ledgers but this one does it. All of my budgeting requirements are met in this one app. Even putting in my credit card rewards which makes my credit card balance go down and my daily fund go up or whatever fund I want to credit with the reward is accomplished with this app. Never have I found an app that does exactly what I was doing until this one. Definitely worth the cost of a subscription to keep it. Makes budgeting fun. Keeps me in check and actually helps me save. Love the reports feature as well which I couldn’t get on paper. Helps searching for transactions if I need to find a receipt like an issue that may arise with a product I purchase but need the receipt for the manufacture warranty or extended warranty. All this can be input into the app and/or on the web with my phone. It’s a money saver and support is great. Heard back from a Developer within the hour of asking the question. Got my daughter going with it now as well to get her finances in order. I have an envelope system with my receipts and can record and track with this app. Other budgeting programs could not do it all as this one can. So glad I found it and tried it. Was about to give up looking and stay with the paper. All good now and my search has ended.

I tried out several apps and online programs for budgeting until settling on Goodbudget. Those include You Need a Budget, Mvelopes, Every Dollar, and Mint, and perhaps others that I’m not thinking of. My preference for Goodbudget is probably very much a personal preference as far as how I like to see accounts and information displayed. In the paid version, there is plenty of room for detail and keeping your different expenses and accounts separate without being overly complicated and technical. I like having an “unallocated” fund to keep excess funds before we have determined what they will be used for or in case our expenses are less for a particular month. I also like that it does not link to my bank account. Some may prefer that option, but I find that I am more aware of my expenses if I’m being forced to enter each one, and it helps force the habit of entering transactions as soon as they are made. The app and online site sync easily, and the expense entry system is intuitive and simple. In the app, entering deposits and merchandise returns requires a different series of operations from an expense, which is a little cumbersome but not awful. I also would love to have the option to take a picture of the receipt and store it with the transaction. All in all, it’s an easy app to use and provides the information I need at a glance. I think it’s definitely worth the money for a paid subscription. I started out paying monthly, but I’ll be upgrading to a yearly payment to save money.

Goodbudget has been there for me through all my life and job changes as an adult! I started using Goodbudget when I graduated from college over 6 years ago, back when I was single and had two part-time jobs. Today, I am married and my partner and I each have a full-time job. We have the paid version and track everything in our budget, from birthday gifts to haircuts—we have 40 envelopes. Goodbudget has helped us save for a car, take multiple vacations abroad, and budget for emergencies (car break-ins, flat tires, parking tickets—the Emergencies envelope saved us!) and save for a future home renovation. Here are my favorite things about Goodbudget: 1) Great flexibility in tracking multiple paychecks – I used to have two incomes; one was once a month and one was every Friday, now I get paid twice a month and my husband gets paid every other Friday. We schedule our paychecks to post on the days we actually receive them and fill our envelopes at the beginning of the month using our cushion. Works great. 2) The envelope faces are cute and kind of sassy. Wish I could use the shocked one as an emoji! 3) I just got access to the new debt features and now we can start tracking our mortgage paydown—it’s great that it even calculates the interest for me! There’s a report that shows me my projected payoff date based on my monthly payments. 4) We have monthly meetings to go over our spending and saving goals, and it's really easy to pull up our Goodbudget reports to see our data, organized in a way that makes sense to us. Thank you, Goodbudget!