You Need a Budget — Giveaway

Usually I give stuff away on this site because someone sends it to me or asks me to review it. Today I’m reviewing a product because I love it LOVE IT and I’m giving it away because I asked the creator if I could have a copy to give away. So here goes the longest review ever with a little embarrassing personal history thrown in.

Dan and I have never been great at budgeting. I was taught to budget and balance a checkbook when I was really young. My dad’s an accountant for the love of chicken and I vividly remember him sitting at the kitchen table paying bills and balancing the checkbook. He and my mom were always careful with money and they taught me to be as well.

Then college hit and I got a bit lax. I learned to only start thinking about money when it ran out and I was always confused. “Like, how come my check totally bounced?” Now, I’m a smart girl but I guess I just decided that I was too smart to waste time tracking every penny. I always did okay, made my rent and tuition payments on time and graduated college with very little debt. I think I only called my parents for a massive bailout package once or twice.

Then after graduation, Dan and I got married. I was supporting him through school, working full time while he held down a part-time job. Suddenly the expenses were shared and the income was more than I’d had before. We weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination but for college students we were doing fine. We had a TWO bedroom apartment with no holes in the walls and a non-shag carpet. I didn’t think we needed to be strict with money.

I planned on staying home once we had kids but I was nervous about how it would feel to be financially dependent on another person. Somehow I got Dan to agree to let me plan and budget our money. I thought that being “in charge” would help me feel like I had a stake in our finances even though I wasn’t the one bringing home the bacon once I became a mom.

But I never really got a handle on the situation. I tried budgeting software, Excel spreadsheets, using a cash-only budget, where when I ran out of cash I ran out of spending power. I bounced from plan to plan but never found a good fit.

Dan and I have grown to equate money with fear. We don’t know how much we have and we don’t always know how much is coming. To me, unexpected income is “free money” and although we (especially Dan) feel a sense of duty to put it towards upcoming major expenses, we want to spend some for fun too and then end up feeling guilty about it. We don’t really have any debt and we have a good amount of savings but we’re not progressing and it seems like we dip more and more into our emergency reserves because our paycheck didn’t quite cover what we spent the previous month.

We make a good living but feel guilty when we spend money on wants because we don’t know if we should and we’re always worried that we’re not managing things right. Financial lame-ish-ness is one of the major causes of stress in our marriage. I’m in charge so whenever we want to buy something, Dan will ask, “Do we have it in the budget?” and I’ll look down at my shoes and say, “We have it in the bank, I think.” And he’ll decide we probably can’t afford it. But then sometimes I’ll buy it anyway and then we’ll be happy for a minute with a vague feeling of guilt. It’s not okay.

So a couple of months ago my sister called me ranting and raving about the new budgeting software she’s using. It’s called YNAB, which stands for You Need a Budget. I winced at the B-word but decided to hear her out. By the end of our conversation I was convinced that I’d at least give it a try, knowing that they offer a money-back guarantee.

Well, it’s $50 I won’t be getting back because I cannot say enough positive things about this software. It’s easy to use. It lets me feel like I’m controlling my money, not the other way around. It’s intuitive. It’s fast and simple to set up. It’s complex enough to do everything I need it to do without being so confusing I want to beat my head against the keyboard, a problem I’ve had with budgeting software in the past. It’s created for families, not businesses and that’s very apparent, although my sister uses it to track her business expenses as well. It comes with instructional material that focuses on living within your means, building up a buffer so you’re not living paycheck to paycheck and really being accountable to yourself and your spouse.

The company is small and they really want to get it right. They have helpful forums and great response time. When I posted a question, I received a personal email and a fix for my problem within a few short hours, even though it was on a weekend.

I set up all the categories in my budget and then Dan and I have a meeting to go over everything. There has been no tension in our meetings, just sort of a giddy feeling of relief. Relief that we have a plan. Relief that there is enough money to do the things that are really important. Relief that he can finally trust me with our family finances.

We have a category for fun money for each of us and one for clothes. We can’t put a lot of money into these categories each month but the money accrues so next month if I haven’t spent my $10, I’ll have $20 and eventually I’ll be able to buy a whole sweater. In the past if I’d budgeted $10 for clothes, I’d rush to spend it so I wouldn’t lose it. The same thing goes with birthday money. I knew that if I didn’t spend my $20 from Grandma right away, it would be absorbed and end up paying for pull-ups or something so I’d buy a $20 piece of uselessness just so I could spend the money on me.

Now I just add my birthday money to my fun-money budget and watch it grow.

This accumulation feature allows us to do things like set up small budgets for several different projects without needing actual separate accounts. I have an account for haircuts and I budget a third of a hair cut each month so I can go in and have it done every three months with no worry about whether or not we can afford for me to live without split ends.

But if I overspend one of my categories, I’m not penalized for it specifically the next month. If Magoo suddenly outgrows all his clothes and I go $100 over-budget on the kids’ clothing category, $100 is taken from the OVERALL budget the next month. I love this feature because sometimes things come up and I don’t want to feel like if I overspend in an area, I’m toast in that area for months. I like that I can spread out the squeeze.

My favorite thing about it is the honesty. Sometimes in the past, when I’d go shopping, I’d hurry to get everything put away before Dan got home so I wouldn’t have to explain to him what I’d purchased and where the money came from. When he’d ask me a week later if the shirt I was wearing was new, I’d mumble something and he’d wonder if I had some whole new secret wardrobe he’d paid for with our life savings without knowing it.

Now I come home from shopping and show him everything with excitement because I know that he knows that it’s all budgeted and accounted for.

We’re achieving goals. We’re learning to have positive feelings about money. We’re strengthening our relationship. We’re gaining self-control and security about our future.

You should too.

Seriously. Go check out the site. Read what they’re all about. I know I can’t be the only one who finds herself at war with money.

If you’d like to win a free copy of YNAB Pro, and I’d highly recommend ordering Pro, leave a comment on this post and I’ll draw a winner on Saturday night. We saved more than $50 the first week we used it by cutting unnecessary spending and noticing strange charges on various accounts we hadn’t been monitoring closely enough. So even if you don’t win, it’s worth the investment. Good luck!

Click to Read My Product Review Policy

This entry was posted in all about me, contests, money, Reviews. Bookmark the permalink.

179 Responses to You Need a Budget — Giveaway

  1. Mar says:

    please please please

    I recently finished grad school and entered the work force. student loans are killing me, and I need a better way than my CRAZY excel spreadsheets to keep it all together

  2. jessica says:

    Oh my goodness! This couldnt be at a better time, i am 35 weeks pregnant and am going to be staying at home! I have been trying to figure out how to do a budget and not be to freaked out by it. My husband and I would love this!

  3. rebecca says:

    I’d love to try this out! Nice find.

  4. FawnDear says:

    Sigh, I NEED this and can’t afford to buy it right now. I get physically nauseous every time I sit down and try and do our budget. Ugh!

    Great review.

  5. Kimber says:

    It is time to boot Quicken, hubby loves it, me…not so much. I would love to “see” money in this way. I would love to have this program.

  6. Mary says:

    Oh, this is very exciting. We have tried Excell, Quicken and Mint and haven’t been happy with any of them. Glad to know there are other options!

  7. April says:

    This sounds a lot like my personal budget. My husband is an excel guru. His program works but it does make me want to smash my head into my keyboard. It would be nice if he and I were on the same playing field, instead of master of excel and peon weilding receipts for purple monkeys or whatever.

  8. Danielle says:

    I love the idea of this! I’ve tried things on my own using Excel but it never worked out and I’d usually abandon it after a week. My husband and I trying to figure out our finances so that when we get pregnant and have a baby I’ll be able to stay home. I think something like this would help us to see if it’s feasible. Thanks for the link! I’m crossing my fingers for the contest!

  9. Emilee says:

    Count me in for some budgeting help.

  10. Camie says:

    Thank you for doing this! I love your blog and am looking forward to my husband finishing school so I can be a stay at home mom! This will come in handy while my hubby squeaks out one more year of college.

  11. Allanna says:

    I would be MORE than interested in getting a budgeting system that I could handle.

    One that doesn’t make me break into cold sweat in the middle of the night. ^_^

  12. JRC says:

    Thanks for getting me so excited to save (it seems like our budgeting stories are errily similar) – only to have to wait for the Mac version to come out……oh well life goes on I guess.

  13. Sarah says:

    This would help our marriage . This would be like sexy underwear to my husband. He would be very turned on to see me standing there with this tool in my hand! showing I was making an effort to understand our money. I wanna win! I wanna win!

  14. Natalie says:

    Consider me entered in the drawing please! Sounds great!

  15. Dawn says:

    Wow – this looks great. I am in charge of money by default and in some phases I do a decent job, and in some phases I don’t. I think this would work really well for us.

  16. sarah k. says:

    I’m so glad you were able to delve into my psyche and write this post right out of my head. I mean the before section, not the after. I’m so gonna buy it.

  17. Jenny says:

    I think this sounds fantastic. Budgets in our house tend to go the way of chore charts. THey are exciting and fun in te beginning, but then it gets too hard or complicated and we just give up….this sounds like a fantastic tool!

  18. SarahLynne says:

    Hmmm…budgeting….I need help here. Definitely need help. This sounds like a great program.

  19. Lindsay says:

    wow, we have such problems with money. i’m a stay at home mom and my husband brings in about $600 every 2 weeks. we are struggling bad. i would love to invest in this budgetting software, but i can’t afford it! LOL. I just started my own blog and just started reading yours, I enjoy it very much.

  20. Elly says:

    Wow! I’m…okay at budgeting, but the “oh crap, I forgot THIS” just kills me. Especially when we have unexpected stuff like the car dying or a growth spurt for one of the kids. I’m seriously going to have to fit this into our current budget if I’m not as lucky as I’d like to be. ^_^

  21. Greg says:

    I need a budget! Help. Sure would be cool to get this program for FREE! Please….grovel, grovel.

  22. Amanda says:

    We could *really* use this budgeting software. We would love to win it. Thanks for offering give-aways like this!

  23. Jennifer says:

    This could come in really handy right now. Your story sounds a little TOO familiar. 🙂 Hope I win!

  24. Jason says:

    I totally NAB…badly!
    Thanks for the recommendation!

  25. Angie T says:

    Wow–I keep our family budget, and we’ve done pretty well, but for some reason, the last few months I have a scary sense of “drowning” when unexpected things like car repairs come up. . .maybe this will help. Thanks for the tip!

  26. Elizabeth Hosto says:

    I am right there with you with the budget thing, I suck at it even though we both were taught better by parents who are great at it. We need help. Thanks for sharing, I need to check this out since quicken is not working for us.

  27. Emily says:

    I was going to use the “I do NAB!” line! DYM, I’ve been reading now for a good 9 months, but I’m very shy about commenting. But I just had to comment now because this seems wonderful! Thanks for all of your lovely writing!

  28. Josephine says:

    I’ve heard about this software before and was intrigued… Winning a copy would be excellent!

  29. Jennifer says:

    Hi there–
    I’m a long time lurker and have never commented before, let alone entered a contest…..even for the Keen’s! The peace of mind that comes from honest planning and discussions with your husband is something we have been/are working towards on a daily basis. It’s hard and an area I feel totally unprepared for. Maybe winning the budget software would help take some of frustration, and yes, anxiety, out of it.

    Thank you for orchestrating the give-a-way!

    Jennifer

  30. I could use a little budgeting help….. ;o)

  31. Colleen Wolowski says:

    This sounds exactly like what we need! Thanks for sharing about it.

  32. Wow, please enter me. My husband and I have been married for four years now, but we still haven’t figured out a workable budgeting system. This program sounds great.

  33. Jen Guzman says:

    I would love to check this out!!!

  34. Jenny says:

    Who doesn’t need budgeting help?

  35. Amanda says:

    A budget…
    That is a very foreign word in our home and it should not be.
    So sad

    I will have to check this software out

  36. aimee says:

    Oh please enter me! My husband and I are SO where you and Dan were. I do the money and he always seems to ask me about it right before bed then I lay there stressed and awake thinking about it. Ugh!

  37. Catherine says:

    This sounds great. I wold love to win your giveaway so I can pass it on to my sister who apparently has the same issues you have been having. She has two kids under three and frets every month about money. I think this is just great!

  38. Jennifer May says:

    wow, we could really use this! sounds awesome!

  39. Blake says:

    I was just talking to my husband about a budget…I’d love to get this software to help us out!

  40. Pretty says:

    I need a budget.

  41. Aria says:

    This sounds fantastic! I could totally relate to your feelings and questions about budgets and the guilt of spending when your in the dark about whether you can afford something or not. Please enter me in the drawing! Thanks!

  42. Nora says:

    Oh, boy, did this post strike a nerve. I am the family CEO, and am still trying to figure out a system. The only hard thing about this will be to wait until this weekend to see who wins before I try out the free software! Thanks for the chance, and good luck with your budget!

  43. This would be a big hep for my family as well i think.There are always areas of improovement!! Thank you and wow,what a great review!!

    oldplace.betty(at)gmail.com

    i invite your readers to enter my giveaway as well…

  44. Amanda says:

    Sounds great! I’d love to try it out.

  45. Vicki T says:

    What a great idea. I hope I win the software! I need to be on a budget program very badly!

  46. Jen says:

    I think every year I tell myself this is the year I will get the budget under control. I am so excited from reading your blog and the YNAB website. Thank you it’s just what I need.

  47. Jennifer says:

    Gee, I hate budgeting, too! It sounds like this software may change my mind. Pick me!

  48. Sarah S says:

    Wow, that sounds like a perfect budget for me. I always get into trouble with having to spend too much one month, and then not getting to spend in it for a long time

  49. Amanda says:

    Oh boy, would I love this. I was financially independent prior to getting married and getting preggo. Now, my hubby does it all! We’ve tried other programs, but are sadly using the old “pen and paper” method. I hope I win!

  50. Proud Daughter of Eve says:

    Your budget (or, more specifically, the lack-thereof prior to this software) sounds exactly like mine! I could so use this software!

Comments are closed.