Free monthly budget software?

[tzikeh]

I am trying to keep a much closer eye on where every penny goes during the month. I just need something where I can input how much comes in, what I spend it on, and any "surprise" income or expenses, that will tell me how much money I have left til X date, and how much that comes out to per day until X date. The only requirement other than that it run on OSX is that it's free.

I'm currently wandering through the instructions for:

Budget Tracker.

Buddi.

The PearBudget spreadsheet template that works with Excel and OpenOffice.

Mint.

Are any of you using any of these? What do you like about it? Do you use something that isn't on this list that you like?

Thanks for any info!

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'm concerned about Mint - once I looked at it and realized it was an online application, I backed away. I want something that's on my desktop that's just for me and doesn't connect to anything.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I grok that. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but I needed something that would work without me spending a lot of intensive time entering information, because that just. wasn't. happening. The latest version of Quicken (at least at that time) for the Mac flat out didn't work, and I made them give me my $$$ back. Decided that I'm already online-everything-ing anyway, and just went with it. It works reeeeeeally well, man. It's sweet. But I definitely understand your discomfort.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

FWIW, Mint is part of the same company that owns Quicken, so if you trust Quicken, you could consider trusting Mint. And I've used them about 2 yrs with no problems. The one good part w/ them, is that they auto-download your info from the various places for you, so if you want to track your checking, credit card, etc, and not go through the hassle of logging in and out of different sites for the info, it's quite nice.

I *totally* understand the trepidation with it being an online app, but like I said, Quicken pedigree and a decent amount of plusses.