When we first married, Jorji and I did our budgeting the old fashioned way, with a piece of paper and a pencil. I'm a real technology geek and Jorji is a technophobic. GEEK plus PHOBIC equals FRIGHTENING!
Paper Budgeting
The manual approach was a good way to sketch out a plan; but lacked seriously when it came to doing the math and tracking with bank account transactions! That plain and simply did not get done. It was too time consuming!
First Budgeting Solution
Being familiar with computer software we decided that I would manage the budget using a computer program. I purchased a well known brand; one that I used for balancing the checkbook years ago. They seemed to have held their popularity over the years, so I bought a new upgraded version. It had a lot of features. I spent hours digging around in the documentation, determined to find a way to automate all of our budgeting concerns. After hours of research, I found that I spent a huge amount of time getting features to work that really weren't all that useful and the features that I really needed were not there!
Second Budgeting Solution
So we decided to design an Excel spreadsheet to do the budget planning. We would use the purchased software to track expenses. The spreadsheet allowed us to plan each category from an expected amount of income. Aaarrrggg! it was very awkward and time consuming to use and it didn't support all the time saving features that we wanted. We just wanted something quick and easy for our budgeting!
Budget Planning Features
Finally, Jorji and I sat down and worked out all the ways that we would want to use our budgeting software so that we could handle the budget harmoniously. Soon it became clear that we would want a program with these features:
- We needed the ability to easily allocate funds to custom categories with differing amounts each month.
- We needed the unspent funds allocated to the budget categories to be automatically forwarded to the next month as available funds to spend in that category. This would be critical for helping us to save money for large expenses. It would function as an account of funds available for a particular purpose.
- We needed to be able to easily track the amount spent in each category and trace that amount to actual bank transactions.
- We needed something where we could easily adjust the plan during the month to reflect unexpected changes. We seldom got it right the first time we sat down to do the budget. We wanted something practical, that was flexible for handling real budgeting changes as they come up.
- We decided to simplify our budgeting by me writing a check out to my wife for all expenses that she purchased at the store, since she handles most store bought items. She would use the envelop method to keep track of what is spent from each category included in the check amount. That makes it much easier to manage what was spent at the stores. So we needed an easy method for planning the shopping funds and tallying the amount, making it easy to write the check.
- Since Jorji likes to buys things, bring them home, then decide whether or not she is going to keep them; we needed to be able to easily credit back returns to a budget category. Sometimes we like to plan to go to an event where several can attend and sit together. In order to do that, we buy the tickets up front and then later get reimbursed. Also, occasionally, Jorji likes to pick up something she knows someone in the family has wanted, then get reimbursed for it later.
- We needed an easy method for reconciling the budget with bank accounts so that we can be confident that the available funds in the budget planner reflect what is really in the checking account.
Once clear on the main features, I began our search. Then we found it! We were so excited! At last a method for planning and tracking all in one nice integrated package.
Jorji and I are so relieved that we finally found the tool that can meet all of our budgeting needs. It has brought peace to our budgeting since it is easy to keep up to date and it is designed to handle our real budgeting issues!
The software is called YNAB 3. YNAB is an acronym for 'You Need A Budget'. I tried their free trial.
It has all the features we were looking for and more. It is easy to use and it didn't take long to pick up how to do things.
I highly recommend YNAB to everyone who is serous about budgeting in an easy and efficient way.
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