Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

You Need a Budget: Final Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

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I’ve been singing the praises of You Need a Budget (YNAB), a personal finance software program that can (and WILL!) forever change your relationship with money and put you in the driver’s seat of your financial future.  If you missed them, please check out my first post and my second post so that you can hear all about my family’s journey and how much has changed since we started using YNAB back in December.

Here’s the final vlog about where we stand now!

Pretty exciting, huh? We were able to seize the opportunity to start our own business because we could clearly assess how the endeavor would fit in with our financial goals, as well as with our priorities as a family. We were able to say “yes” to the right thing at the right time!

Buy it!: YNAB retails for $59.95 and I cannot emphasize enough how much it is worth the price. It will change your life, people.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win your own download of the software! Yes! The contest will run until August 20th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me anything related to the topic of personal finance. What are some of your financial goals? What are some of the obstacles you face to reaching those goals? How do you currently keep track of your finances? Anything related to the topic works for me!

Additional entries:

1. Sponsor love: Like YNAB on Facebook

2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by email or RSS

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of the site.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of YNAB for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

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Comments

  1. I’m in dire need of a budget software right now… going back to school full time while raising four kids means lots of hamburger helper and mac ‘n cheese unless I figure things out. 😉 Thanks for the contest!

  6. Niether one of us (my hubby or I) are good at budgetting our money. We ALWAYS have issues. I am solely responsible for bill paying & I do my best. However I must admit that at times I struggle. It doesn’t help that we don’t have a GOOD reliable way to keep track of our money. We have 5 kids, I am no longer working, & they cut back on his hours so we really have to watch everything. I do think this would be a lifesaver in the finance department. Thanks!

    farrah_jo@yaghoo.com

  8. My income is so small it is necessary to watch each dollar expended. I would love to be able to do this on my computer….perhaps I could cut corners even more sharply. Currently I keep a running account with paper and pencil. 🙂 Thank you.

  11. We use excel to keep track of our finances. It is rather clumsy and I am sure this software is a huge huge improvement
    brich22 at earthlink dot net

  15. I have just started keep track of our monthly budget, and this sounds perfect for helping me get control of our finances.

  17. Right now I am on the paper system. I write down my budget at the beginning of the month but sometimes it’s hard to stick to it. As a college student, I a have a very limited income. I would really love to pay off my student loans in the next three years. $16,500. phew. Here we go.

  18. <<<<<>>> I just quit my FULL-time job, to go back to school… Times are about to get tough around here if me and my husband dont come up with a budget ASAP! I definately need to WIN THIS software!!
    THANKS!
    THANKS!
    THANKS!

  20. My wife keeps track of our finances, but we would love to be able to afford a bigger house.

  21. I can’t seem to budget for those expensive things which seem to happen on a regular basis.

  23. Paying off our credit cards is such a HUGE financial headache. The interest rates make me sick. We’ve been using Dave Ramsey’s budget, but I hate paying every month to do my budget. $10 is $10 that could go towards paying off our debt.

  25. One of our short-term financial goals is to save enough money to move a few states away by the 1st of the year. A long-term goal is to be able to purchase some land for a homestead within the next 5 – 10 years, and pay it off as soon as possible (think 5 – 10 years, not 30).

  26. mom of 4 boys, recently became SAHM, needing help to get out of debt and get finacially organized!

  28. I’m very disorganized when it comes to finance. My current system of random paper and bills all over my desk isn’t working.

  30. I just graduated from college with my first real job. I would use this to pay off my loans, and save for a trip to Australia

  31. hopefully i’ll have my credit cards paid off by the end of the year! i need one of these 🙂

  35. Baby #1 is on the way and I am going to be a stay at home mom/homeschool mom in 3 weeks or less. My husband will be the sole provider in the family. I am the planner of the family and would like to contribute to our finical stability by being able to plan and budget the money my husband so lovingly provides for me and our soon to be baby girl.

  37. I have been unemployed for a year and looking into starting a business. I know this would help me to maximize my finances.

  40. I use Excel spreadsheet to keep track of our finances… Our goal is to pay off + improve the house in the next five years. The obstacles? money 🙂 I find myself spending a lot of money on groceries and I am trying to find the way to save more.

  41. My primary financial goal would be to pay off my student loans, as i have recently paid off my credit cards. Unfortunately my financial planning consists of scribbles on a notepad!

  42. My budget goal is to pay off student loans and credit card bills. I have a tricky time with budgeting. This might be helpful.

  43. I use quickbooks as we have several businesses that I need to keep on top of. I log all of our personal stuff there too-while it is all logged I need to figure out a way to utilize all that information/graphs/reports! So that is my biggest struggle-utilizing the information that I am given. I would love to win this-maybe it can help me utilize the information I have and actually set up a budget!

  46. We could definitely use this! One of the obstacles in our way is that I just graduated college and have yet to find a job in my career. We would like to be able to get a new(er) car and a house but we definitely would need to work on our finances first!

  52. Right now I currently use the Mint.com app on my Iphone. Unfortunately it seems to drain my data plan quickly and is slow to update my accounts. We’re trying really hard to save up money for an upcoming move into a fixer upper and have been testing our various budgeting software with little luck so far.

  55. My biggest problem is… i have no goals! Stuff always seems to come up that get in the way of accomplishing anything financially 😉

  57. My personal finance goal is to be debt-free. We have over $40,000 of student loan debt; $9000 on a credit card; and $9800 on a car. We live very frugally, but we made poor choices early in our marriage in terms of taking on debt quickly.

  58. My wife and I are expecting our first baby in a couple months and we are going over our money situation. One of my goals is to pay off one of my student loans before the year is over.

  60. My husband and I just recently sat down, and analyzed all of our debt. We are currently living off from one income, and have extra money coming in from our rental income monthly. We have a little over 15K in credit card debt. Something we are not happy about, so we’ve been avoiding actually trying to figure out a plan to how we were going to pay it off. We now have made a budget, which will pay off our debt in 24 months.

  61. Save money on things you would buy anyway…make the moeny you have go as far a possible.

  62. We always seem to get back in the paycheck to paycheck mode, even after we pay off debts. We’re trying to use Mint.com now but I’m not thrilled with it. My notebook method is still my go-to tool.

  64. we are currently living less then paycheck tp paycheck, we need all the help we can get right now with 3 little kids as well.

  69. I can’t help to think how bad my Brother & sis-in-law need this. We do well and have focused on retirement for years also. my brother and family truley live paycheck to paycheck, pay bills if spending money leaves enough left over and have to clue or education how to start. They really want to learn and think they are too deep & I know they are not. this would be encouraging and life changing for them!

  72. I want to get out of debt and stay out of debt! My DH is self-employed, so budgeting money is difficult, since he doesn’t get a regular pay check. I’d love to see what this system can do for us, since most budgeting systems don’t work for our situation.

  74. Just about 6 years of marriage and 2 kids later and we still haven’t sat down to do a budget. We just kinda wing it which is so dangerous. I know how much I save and spend, but I know putting together a budget is so much more beneficial for both parties. I just need to find the right format to help us. Maybe this is it.. 😉

    blondredhead at mac dot com

  83. We have many financial goals, including paying off debt, saving up for tuition for our daughters school for next year, etc.

  84. I have been interested in YNAB for a while, but have not taken the plunge to try it out. I would love to try it out. Our current methods of tracking work fine, but I think we could do so much better. I love YNAB on FaceBook.

  87. Hubby and I both came into our relationship with ruined credit and debt. In the past four years, we’ve managed to make it worse. We need to get out of debt, improve our credit, and be financially sound by the time our children are old enough to know better!!

  88. My husband and I would really like to get out of debt so we can save to build a house with cash.

  90. I went from perfect credit over a year ago to getting my credit lines reduced-this economy killed me and I need to get back on track
    hendymartin1 at yahoo dot com

  93. I would love to find a way to get out of student loan debt. We currently live on a super tight budget and there is just no room to pay extra on anything!

  96. We NEED this! We recently bought a house and are keeping track of our finances via Excel. This would be way more useful!

  97. I would LOVE to have a copy of this. We are looking at a giant upheaval finances-wise and were just talking the other night about how we’d like it to look. It’d be very helpful to me to be able to look at it all on paper – or the computer.

    Jess

  100. Our goal is to pay off our debt, get new windows for the house, live comfortably, and still have enough money in savings for a safety cushion. We need help budgeting our finances!

  103. My financial goal is to get out of debt and actually put some money into savings. Unfortunately, my income is so very small that I can’t get ahead. The job market is particularly bad in my area. My education and experience count for very little…

    renfie.fields@gmail.com

  105. In 2006, I sold my house and downsized into a condo and spent the next year paying off all my debt. It was driving me crazy and I had gotten in too deep! I am extremely happy to say that we are out of debt but it wasn’t a fun road. My problem now is tracking my spending. Though I put money in savings every month, I know there are better ways to track and increase efficiency in our spending habits. My problem is that I haven’t found anything that really works for me yet. This may actually do the trick!

  108. I’m a Stuff Parents Need e-mail subscriber! That’s how I found out about this giveaway 😀

  110. I would like to start my own business, but I don’t think it is feasible with my poor credit history (which happened because I had no budgeting skills…surprise!). I also have no money. Maybe something like this could help me start spending less and saving more.

  111. I will probably be going to grad school next fall so DEFINITELY figuring out a way to pay for that and balance a full time job if need be (though I would love to financially be able to give that up). YNAB would be awesome! Thanks for all the reviews!

  114. I’ve just been talking about finances with my husband. We’ve never really had a budget, and we’ve never tracked where our money goes. As we talk about possibly having a second child, our finances will get even tighter, and now is the time to figure out everything. I don’t want our spending to get out of control, and so I’ve been looking for something that would help us start moving in the right direction. YNAB would be a great help!

  119. my husband keeps track of everything for us. He is a financial planner and very careful with our money. I really would like to win this for someone else. They could use it and would love to have the help! Thanks!

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