I originally turned away from YNAB (You Need A Budget) during my time using Simple (before the dark days) for a few reasons when I compared it to Simple:Luckily my partner had been using YNAB successfully for about six months, showed me the ropes and soon I was hooked. I now look at YNAB more often than he does. YNAB technically is a glorified spreadsheet, which is how it was born, but it’s obvious that a lot of thought and love has gone into it over several years that makes it definitely worth the cost. Not only does the one time fee entitle you to every future update of this product, but also to a mobile version of the application which allows me to check my budget on the go so that it can influence my behavior.
Yes YNAB does require that all transactions be entered manually (UPDATE: as of 2015 this is no longer the case!), but that has actually become almost a benefit because it requires me to be that much more aware of what money I’ve spent – a little like logging calories before eating tiramisu. It influences behavior more than you would think. Lastly, YNAB originally frustrated me when I was trying to understand its rules and how it works, but luckily I had the fantastic tutorials and live webinars offered by the YNAB team themselves to guide me. The only tricky part that I still grapple with is properly classifying transactions that will be reimbursed but I’m developing my own system. Overall I absolutely love YNAB. It might be the best purchase I (though actually my partner) made in 2014.