iPhone, iPhone, quite contrary, where does my money go?

December 4, 2012 8:46 AM

I would like an iPhone budgeting app that doesn't make me link it to a bank account. What are my options?

I would like to use my iPhone 4s to help me budget/track spending but I'm skeeved out by apps that make me link to a bank account. I would like to manually input how much income I have, then divide it into expense categories like rent, coffee, groceries, phone bill, etc. as I spend it. Can you suggest an app that will help me do that? Obviously free is preferred but I'd pay a couple bucks for it.

posted by thewestinggame to Technology (10 answers total)

You Need A Budget has both iOS and OSX apps available. Not free, but it's worth every penny.
posted by evoque at 8:49 AM on December 4, 2012

Best answer: I really like EEBA for this. The free version is great if you don't care about reconciling to bank accounts.
posted by Nimmie Amee at 8:59 AM on December 4, 2012

Best answer: Seconding EEBA. I've been using the free version for a long time and have never ran against its limitations.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:23 AM on December 4, 2012

Seconding YNAB, although you need the OSX app to run the iOS one. They are phenomenal though.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:59 AM on December 4, 2012

I use Money Journal for this and it does exactly what you want. There are 12 categories (which you can name as you please), and you can set them as income or expense items.
posted by manyon at 1:40 PM on December 4, 2012

Thirding YNAB. It costs money ($60 for the desktop version, and $5 for the full iOS app, though there's a usable free iOS app) but it's well worth it. I found YNAB to be more useful than other budgeting applications I've tried, primarily because it's very flexible.

Following up to what Happy Dave said, you do need the desktop version to use the iOS version, but it doesn't need to be the Mac desktop version -- if you have an iPhone and a Windows PC, you can get the desktop version for Windows instead.

You can also get a 34-day free trial of the desktop version, which means you can test it out with the free iOS app and see if it works for you before spending the money.
posted by snowmentality at 1:45 PM on December 4, 2012

Seconding iXpenseit. I've been using it for over a year now and while it's great for budgeting, it's particularly good for expense tracking because it's so customisable.

You can also export your budgets and tracked expenses as spreadsheets if you have a need for that.

There's a free version too so you can test it out before upgrading to the full version.
posted by thecitymiddle at 1:58 PM on December 4, 2012

Are any of these available on Android?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:17 PM on December 4, 2012

I use MoneyWiz and I love it. You can connect it to your bank account but you don't have to.
posted by Skyanth at 2:45 AM on December 5, 2012

computech_apolloniajames: "Are any of these available on Android?"

YNAB is, no idea about the others.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:46 AM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]