Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app?

Posted by canadianwriter on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @11:57AM
from the ask-hn dept.

Looking for an app that I thought was simple but seems to not be:

- Can input things I spend money on quickly and easily eg. Buy a chocolate bar, click a button, enter the amount and maybe choose a category then done.

- Set monthly budgets for categories

- Tells me how I am doing based on what I enter

I know YNAB exists but seems insanely expensive for what I want.

Nice to haves: - on Android but also a web interface - privacy features like being open source and having everything encrypted similar to Standard Note.

Any suggestions?

( 12 comments | 7 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by jeletonskelly on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:04PM (#18969835)

Mint is ok, but I feel like there is a gap in the market for budgeting apps. I still have a spreadsheet of general categories like "groceries", "restaurants", "discretionary", and "cell phones/internet" that I prefer to group things into. The way Mint tries to categorize my transactions makes it frustrating to use. They're trying to push users into using their categories instead of letting me create categories and assign my transactions to them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by ahpearce on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:47PM (#18970369)

Mint allows you to create categories and you can assign certain transactions to them, and then click the "always apply this to this category" radio button.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by mortivore on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:23PM (#18970080)

As far as I know there isn't one. I still use YNAB4 because I don't want to "upgrade". I've been thinking about building my own budgeting system because the only real alternative seems to be excel sheets.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by palidanx on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:44PM (#18970319)

I'm actually in the same boat. I've been paranoid of using ynab online because of giving a company all of my financial data. I don't know if it is unfounded, but I do have to admit using ynab on the desktop is kind of inconvenient.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by quickthrower2 on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:24PM (#18970774)

Me too. It’s not perfect in the methodology, but the UX is great and I can hack around it’s limitations. E.g. try using the envelope system when doing renovations! Anyway good software. Problem with budget software is users are too tight to spend a lot of money on it so there are plenty of half assed products out there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by mpetkevicius on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @05:59AM (#18977248)

I believe Spendee meets your criteria. What I like about it most is that you can add expenses via Android home screen widget very easily.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by simantel on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:33PM (#18970210)

YNAB does what you want and only costs $6.99 a month. IMHO it's worth every penny.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by quickthrower2 on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @10:08PM (#18975300)

YNAB4 did it for about $50 IIRC, over 10 years that's 6% of the price.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by mortivore on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @09:58AM (#18978625)

Yeah, I paid $60 for YNAB4 back in 2015. I've already paid only a fraction of the price, and use it constantly. Subscription services don't seem like they cost a lot, but cost a ton.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by tonyedgecombe on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @11:16AM (#18979521)

It's quite hard to find finance software that isn't subscription based now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by godelmachine on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:19PM (#18970037)

I have been looking for such an app but have never come across one until now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Budgeting and Expense app? by quickthrower2 on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:25PM (#18970791)

I’m curious has anyone used Airtable for this?

[ Parent | on HN ]