re: budgeting expenses, APP or spreadsheet

Personally, i have tried to do YNAB, Mint and several other APPS. I have found that using a manual spreadsheet is best for me. By having to manually enter our expenses (yes it takes time) I have a better handle on where the money is going. I have created my own spreadsheet over the years to a point that it does exactly what I need.

At the end of every month I download my expenses from my bank for the month and go line by line and categorize the expenditures. I use pretty broad catergories like grocery, food, retail, etc so I can really chart the data.

To each their own....