Doing it on our own and the envelope system

[Math_Rocks]

So, once again, I'm re-working the budget. DH will start a new job in a couple weeks and we are going to start a debt management program that I've set up myself, i.e. without help from any organization. I will give it to the end of the year to see if we can maintain discipline on our own and, if not, we'll sign up with Marty's DMP at the end of the year. I'm very encouraged that, if we continue at present income and the budget I'm laying out, we will be free of non-installment debt in 3 years.

Anyway, some of the best budget successes we've had in the past have been when we used an envelope system. However, in this day and age, I don't like using cash and real envelopes. I was talking about this with a friend today and he said that he is thinking about using Money Well, an online budgeting tool where you have virtual envelopes. Unfortunately, it looks like it is only for Macs and its $40. Right now I use Mint which is nice for an overall picture but the budgeting tools don't work well. I would like to find something that is inexpensive, based on the envelope system and will work with a PC. 

Open to any advice/suggestions about budgeting, doing my own DMP or "envelope" software. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Snowmint makes two versions of their envelope system, one for mac and one for windows

http://financialsoft.about.com/od/reviewsfinancesoftware/fr/BudgetSnowmt.htm

It has budget planning, payroll data and account info that can be set up for multiple things, you can group envelopes into larger envelopes (so put gas and car insurance as two seperate envelopes into one larger called car)

Seems pretty good so far and best of all it's free so if you don't like it then no worries

[Math_Rocks]

Thanks! This looks rea'lly good but it isn't free:

Budget by Snowmint Creative Solutions LLC costs $29.95 USD to download and $37.95 for a software CD, and upgrades are free, making Budget less expensive that personal finance software requires upgrading every two or three years for at a cost. 

I might end up doing this but I'll see if there are any other suggestions. I think MattH has done something himself using Excel but it sounds like he is much more experienced with Excel than I am. And I kind of like the visual envelopes.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I use excel myself but I started using this (it used to be free) sorry bout that I thought it was still gratis - you can download a free trial (it just limits the number of transactions you can put in to each envelope apparently before you have to upgrade now) the free trial can be found here

http://financialsoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=financialsoft&cdn=compute&tm=15&gp...

Trial download limitations

The trial has no definite expiration time; instead during the trial various features are disabled or limited. Budget can record only 250 transactions total (25 transactions in any single envelope), and can only balance each bank account 4 times if it is not purchased. Also when Budget is purchased, the watermark on reports and printed checks will no longer appear, transaction and report data can be exported in various formats, the Find Transaction command can have unlimited number of criteria, and additional backup options will be available.

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@Math_Rocks wrote:

Thanks! This looks rea'lly good but it isn't free:

Budget by Snowmint Creative Solutions LLC costs $29.95 USD to download and $37.95 for a software CD, and upgrades are free, making Budget less expensive that personal finance software requires upgrading every two or three years for at a cost. 

I might end up doing this but I'll see if there are any other suggestions. I think MattH has done something himself using Excel but it sounds like he is much more experienced with Excel than I am. And I kind of like the visual envelopes.

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