App that categorises spending

[bexboz]

I used to budget on paper, and highlight spending in each category in a different colour (similar to the Budget Mom style if you are familiar with that). Now that I have a baby I just cannot find the time to write everything out and do it on paper. I'm looking for an app with the following requirements...

• automatically links to my bank accounts (nationwide) so I don't have to manually put in each item

• works with a joint account as all of our spending comes from our joint account

• I can go in and manually assign each item to a category

• when I transfer money from one account to another I can add a note about the reason or give it a category eg "money moved from emergency fund for car repair"

• I would rather pay a single fee for the app rather than a subscription. In-app purchases frustrate me!

What would you suggest? Thanks!

I'd say You Need a Budget does all that.

I've been using for a few years and it's completely helped me stop spending so much and save much more successfully.

It is very good and easy

Circa £60 p.a I think

YNAB. 34 day free trial.then £89.99 a year. Does everything you've asked. Desktop or app. Although I don't find the app very easy to use.

I might be way off the mark here but my Monzo account does pretty much all of this. If you pay a monthly fee (I don't) you can drill down even further with categories I think.

Emma app and money dashboard used to do these. My finances are too complex to handle them though and have had to go back to excel.

I would switch to Monzo.

I can do all this in Monzo

Another vote for YNAB. I love the app and it’s a great system that ticks all of your boxes.

I use YNAB and would wholeheartedly recommend it.

But, it is a subscription model (pay annually is cheaper than pay monthly), and you would need to adapt your way of doing things, particularly around the ‘transfers’ and how you noted them. The app supports the zero-based budgeting method, rather than being totally flexible to how you used to do it, IYSWIM. It requires you to flex to it a bit. But once you do it’s transformative IMO.

MoneyHub is pretty good and you get 6 months to try it out before having to pay.

Another vote for Moneyhub. I have a nationwide account and can link it easily. Once the free period ends, annual subscription is £14.99 which I prefer to pay rather than writing every in/out manually!

I use Moneyhub too and it's straightforward and easy to use. Definitely advise you to have a play with it.

Thanks all, I've downloaded MoneyHub to give it a try. I wish the categories were more customisable ie so I could make my own main categories and pick their colours rather than just making subcategories. But I think it will save me a lot of time! Thanks!

If you don't get on with it definitely give YNAB a shot. It's a game changer (I'm an accountant and the mindset along with the software are both amazing)

Snoop does this and it's free.

I also think Snoop would suit what you're looking for.

YNAB does all of that. You can even use emojis if you so wish. You can colour code your bank accounts and add colour dots beside all your different transactions.

They have a 34 day free trial, so it's worth looking at.