has anyone used this spreadsheet. There are different variations for different countries. I am using the Australia version but maintenance is high and not really that intuitive
I jumped off YNAB at the end of last year (when my subscription came up) due to the massive price jump.
I’ve gone with Aspire Budget which is an astounding Google Sheet setup. Because it’s cloud-based, there’s an iOS/iPadOS app that works with it.
It pretty much follows the YNAB style of budgeting. Because it’s a spreadsheet, it’s nowhere near as user friendly as YNAB (very easy to stuff things up with wrong data, or cutting and pasting)—but it does everything I want for a perfect price ($0…though it accepts donations).
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I have been with YNAB since 2010, the first mac release. I have the original email when they went subscription, it was lifelong 10% saving. They also sent an email about this price change.
I choose to stay with them for two reasons:
- the money I save because of awareness is with it.
- It is still less than Every Dollar from Dave Ramsey.
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I’m a YNAB user, have been since 2006. I like the online YNAB and didn’t like the enforced subscription rise. I’ve looked for alternatives but our budgeting is so engrained in the YNAB give every dollar a job paradigm that when we have tried other solutions we continue with YNAB.
I did try some other solutions at the start of this month, Pocketsmith among them but we couldn’t gel with that. My wife was surprised I had starting looking elsewhere as YNAB is so central to our financial health. She enjoys the weekly budget meetings we have had for years.
YNAB is far from perfect and the loss of the support forums is regretable but we will remain with YNAB.
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Bank of America. The tools don’t handle investments, just activity and budgets. But it can import transactions from other banks and non BofA credit card companies if you enter your logon credentials on the bank website. Reports can be downloaded from the website as .csv files which Numbers does a great job of formatting automatically.
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They did promise it on their social channels… When I was not sure about making the jump from YNAB4 to nYNAB because lots of features were missing this was my main reason to go there.
Think about the price jump: First it was a 49,99$ app, you bought it, you owned it. 50$ for 5 years. With special offers on Steam you could get it for 20-30$.
Then they changed to subscription. 50$ a year. I guess they meant it to keep this way.
Now we are at 90$ a year.
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I used Mint for years, but it was so frustrating that it kept categorizing things incorrectly. I found out about Monarch Money (referral) during their beta period, and it’s been quite good. It has user-defined rules, so I spend much less time recategorizing transactions now. Then, I came across Lunch Money (also referral), which is even geekier. It even has an API, which is awesome. Monarch has funding and a team, so it’s more polished and moving quicker. Now, I’m using Monarch for family finances and Lunch Money for personal. Let me know if you have questions about either of them.
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I guess most people know already, MoneyWiz is in setapp but I have not tried it as it is not geared up for Australian market
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One that might be worth looking at is Aspire Budgeting:
As @funkydan2 said it’s a Google Sheet, and fairly similar to YNAB. They also have a subreddit with lots of users sharing tips and helping each other out.
Another one worth a look is Finances. It’s a one time purchase (once each for macOS, iOS and iPadOS), but stores everything in iCloud and is how I do my business accounting (I should get better at personal!). It’s double-entry bookkeeping which has a bit of a learning curve, but has some similarities to YNAB. It can import from banks, but I’ve yet to use that feature myself.
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It would be about 90$ for me, I have a lifetime discount of 10%… 
It is crazy, yes. It had several really high price increases. I don’t want to imagine what they are doing with all the data they collect. And they are even monetarizing your data through Plaid.
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For legacy subscribers too?
Actually, Office 365 personal is about $30 cheaper than that. 
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It really isn’t worth it. They enhanced the envelope system and made an easy approach to it. They provided a really good written wiki and tutorial for some time. But they aren’t that company anymore.
They changed their philosophy several times, they changed their business model completely. They have became something like shady car salesman. Trying to get the next dollar out instead of into your pocket.
I can remember that they had a “we help you poor students and housewifes to manage your money better.” Now they have elite prices. This doesn’t fit.
And it is lacking. It is a beautiful spreadsheet. I give them that. But it is a website. I can’t use it without Internet. I can’t save receipts. I can’t add investments. For most people outside of GB and the US everything has to be put in by hand.
And I’m starting to hate their attitude. Like: We know that the increase is a lot but YNAB will help you save that anyways. -.- This is what the rainy day fund is for, right? Unexpected expenses… Like budget app price increases.
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Plaid/account syncing is an ongoing per-account expense for YNAB, not a revenue source. The other is their support team.
I think they feel they can defend their pricing because their mobile app is so much better than most of their competitors, and so much personal finance software usage has shifted that way. We replacing YNAB with spreadsheets and Mac software aren’t taking the popular route.
Saying this as someone who left YNAB in the last couple months. I don’t have to hate them to want to spend less money.
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Interesting thread - I too am frustrated at how expensive YNAB has become, however, I just don’t see the competition being as convenient or easy to use 
YNAB support has also been incredible the few times I’ve needed it.
You’re right. They have a much better mobile app. But I don’t think they increase prizes because they think they have the best mobile app and people will pay it because of this circumstance.
I think they know exactly that people don’t change their habit of budgeting easily. Nerds like me will do that, yes, but not the average person. Not people whom they helped saving a lot of money. I mean, look at their student discount. Students get YNAB free for one year and then they have to pay full price. I’m a teacher so I have seen a ton of different educational discounts but this somehow unique. Usually you get 20-30% discount as long as you can provide evidence that you are a student. After one year, who will stop paying it, when it works? It’s a win win. If it saves you more money then it costs, they can raise the price again, right? They have all the data.
And I don’t say that I hate them. Hate is a very heavy word. I hate their money grabbing behavior in this regard.
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Interesting that both of these alternatives cost just as much as YNAB.
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I use the “Full View” option on fidelity.com, it allows you to import from pretty much everywhere and allows pretty easy spending categorization and breakdowns. I /think/ you need a fidelity account but don’t necessarily have to have any money at fidelity to access it.