YNAB free alternative?

Kitty777

Hello

I have been looking into the YNAB programme. It says it is free for 34 days and then it is $60 after that. £35ish quid is quite a bit of money for me considering I am not in debt and just really want to take control of my cash...is there a free alternative?

Thanks

SeduLOUs

Honestly? I think YNAB is worth it's weight in gold, and whilst £35 might feel like a lot now, it's only ever a one-off and you'll probably never find a freebie that's as good.

Are you a student or do you have one living with you? If so you can get a 12 month YNAB license for free: http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/2014/ynab-is-now-free-for-college-students/

A free alternative is MS Money. But it's a very old version and no longer has support. I used it for a while, it's quite complex and a lot of the features for importing bank statements just don't work anymore. I then had a major crash and lost all of my data.

Mint looks like a good one, but doesn't seem to be much use to us in the UK unfortunately.

belleandthebudget

I'm not long into my YNAB trial but I agree that the functionality and ease of use isn't something I've found in any other free version - particularly as the app and desktop versions talk to each other to stay synced.

I'll definitely be buying it.

For very simple spending tracker apps though try Left To Spend or Well Spent.

FireWyrm

Kitty777 wrote: »

Hello

I have been looking into the YNAB programme. It says it is free for 34 days and then it is $60 after that. £35ish quid is quite a bit of money for me considering I am not in debt and just really want to take control of my cash...is there a free alternative?

Thanks

I understand that you might think £35 is a lot of money and your prudence and careful thought over spending the money is laudable, however, the application works, and it will pay for itself in the long run with peace of mind and careful arrangement of your finances. This is one of the very few times when not buying something is the very definition of penny wise, pound foolish. Any software that allows relatively easy book keeping is worth the money.

You could create an Excel spreadsheet that would yield similar results, but it would not sync like YNAB and it would not allow import of your banking transactions as well as matching and quick categorisation.

Kitty777

I will see how I go then, in the next few weeks!!

Thanks everyone.

Nikkisun

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Honestly? I think YNAB is worth it's weight in gold, and whilst £35 might feel like a lot now, it's only ever a one-off and you'll probably never find a freebie that's as good.

Are you a student or do you have one living with you? If so you can get a 12 month YNAB license for free: http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/2014/ynab-is-now-free-for-college-students/

A free alternative is MS Money. But it's a very old version and no longer has support. I used it for a while, it's quite complex and a lot of the features for importing bank statements just don't work anymore. I then had a major crash and lost all of my data.

Mint looks like a good one, but doesn't seem to be much use to us in the UK unfortunately.

Just wanted to say thanks for this - I didn't realise students could get it for free so my son just got me a licence code - so far it looks great!

Kitty777

Nikkisun wrote: »

Just wanted to say thanks for this - I didn't realise students could get it for free so my son just got me a licence code - so far it looks great!

I wish I knew this a year or so ago, when for my volunteering I was helping a young lady budget as she was living on her own for the first time.

It is very good of them, helpfully help young people take control earlier

timbstoke

Nikkisun wrote: »

Just wanted to say thanks for this - I didn't realise students could get it for free so my son just got me a licence code - so far it looks great!

Note that this is only a 12 month license. One tip is to keep an eye out for the Steam sales to see if it pops up there - I picked it up for about 75% off during the last Winter sale.

Nikkisun

timbstoke wrote: »

Note that this is only a 12 month license. One tip is to keep an eye out for the Steam sales to see if it pops up there - I picked it up for about 75% off during the last Winter sale.

Apparently as long as you can prove you're still a student then they'll renew the licence.

SeduLOUs

timbstoke wrote: »

Note that this is only a 12 month license. One tip is to keep an eye out for the Steam sales to see if it pops up there - I picked it up for about 75% off during the last Winter sale.

It is only a 12 month license, but it can be renewed repeatedly as long as you are still a student. I think they just put the time limit on to prevent people getting it 'for life' when they should rightfully pay for it as they come out of student land and into the world of work.

Besides, if you get real value from it for those 12 months and plan to continue using after the free period ends, I honestly don't think £35 is much to pay when you compare it to the price of Office products for example.

katejo

Google YNAB forum and you will find that lots of members, including myself, offer their membership codes to new members. This gives a small discount to new members. I joined in August.