CalendarBudget Omdömen 144

I’m writing another review of CalendarBudget (CB). For info: I left them for a short time because I was thinking it was too basic and I wanted subcategories. I was part of the Founders Club so, I with them since the beginning.

Since then, I’ve tried at least 15+ or more apps or at least looked into. I wanted something simple but also keep track of my spending and I also want to be able to see into the future to be able to model a big spend or additional payments if I want to purchase something.

There are lots of threads on reddit about people asking this — gets quite confusing. It’s probably why I tried so many.

My wants:
- daily balances to reconcile with bank
- Not necessarily want bank connections but would use
- Calendar view
- Subcategories
- Forecasting (preference 5-10 years)
- Simple, not overcomplicated
- Easy swipe to change dates or move, delete

I had such a hard time finding the right fit for me.

On Reddit someone commented on a post where I listed what I’ve tried and why it didn’t work for me (so many ask this question) and someone said: have you tried to search for “cash flow planner” vs budgeting or forecasting? I never thought of that so I did not App Store & web searches and finally found another tool. This is a great tool but missing calendar view and has some other quirks.

Not everyone wants the complicated financial tools for their personal money management.

To note: both Founders of these two tools (CB & the other one) are extremely responsive as well - this makes a huge difference.

After using both tools, all the wants I’ve been looking for are within CB itself! When I realized this — I have decided to go back to CB!

Thank you for all you do!!

Been using this app for years, love it really easy and simple to set up. Love you can open separate accounts for different things

My wife and I will be using this from now on. It's so simple and lets us plan exactly how we wanted!

I've used many budgeting apps before, but nothing gave me the at-a-glance forecast of where my money goes and how much I'll have in the future like CalendarBudget does. The auto-categorizing saves me a ton of time, and the calendar setup tells me exactly how much I'll have on any given date in the near future. The reporting helps me find trends and set forecast estimates, and the budget feature helps me fine-tune my budget so everything stays predictable. I couldn't live without it!

Three years and three months ago, at the age of 33, I came to the realization I was in financial crisis after a lifetime of suffering my own super-spendy, anxious-avoidant, totally uninformed money tendencies. I read a couple of finance books to finally learn the basic rules and then spent a week shopping for budgeting apps to help me shape up.

With other apps and methods, I found I would still overdraw my bank account because the list formats weren't clear enough for me to understand the timings of my obligations.

But after a few years of CalendarBudget, I'm now the kind of person who loves talking about money, learning about money, and making plans for my financial future. It's still shocking to me, but I'm now the kind of person who opens ALL my accounts and my CalendarBudget at least once a day so I can make sure everything is on track... because I'm now the kind of person who does daily budgeting to relax!

The first thing I did was pay off 9k of credit card debt (on $20,000 net income) during a pandemic. Then I assembled my first-ever emergency fund and a passel of sinking funds that have allowed me to take on several emergencies without breaking momentum or going back into debt.

In February I exceeded a zero net worth for the first time in my adult life. In three weeks I'll be able to pay off my car four years early. In seven months I'll have a fully-funded emergency fund, in a year I project I'll be able to do a European river cruise and pay off my student loans, and in 2024 my projection says I'll be able to max out my new IRA for the first time ever.

I'm a CalendarBudget evangelist. It is the best, simplest, easiest app on the market and I tell everyone I know about it.

I've been using CalendarBudget for seven years and have paid off 75k in student debt with it. I've been debt free since August 15th 2022. (It took ten seconds to log in and find that date. =D) This is one of those "if you know, you know" secrets. Here, there are no assumptions about the past or future. Your assets and debts are all right there to the cent on any date if you dedicate the effort to keep track of them. Think you need to buy a new car? Plug in the numbers and see where the money will need to come from. Same goes for paying off a loan, or planning retirement contributions. Just make a new 'account' and enter a recurring transaction. Click forward a year to see what will happen. Adjust, experiment, learn. Stop worrying. Be certain. Be happy.

Cash Flow Above All

There are so many budgetting apps. Each with a unique UI or method to save your financial wellbeing. Each say they help, but this app is truly a life saver.

Zero-based budgeting apps (YNAB and EveryDollar) focus on giving each dollar a job. The problem, you are focused on the next paycheck. There is no future visablity of cash flows. You cannot see how spending an extra $200 on debt reduction in the current month will lower your available balance in December.

The calendar budget allows you to see future impacts to your current decisions. For example:

What happens if you spend $450 to repair your car today? If using another app, you'll pull money from other budget categories, but you can't see how this impacts your budget 2 months from now. With Calendar budget, you can.

TLDR

Calendar Budget is a cash flow budget system. You enter all reoccuring transactions and planned expenses, then you can see how extra spending will change your cash flow. It is cheaper than most budgeting apps (7.99mo/56yr), and they offer a 30 day trial.

5 stars.

I love this program. I’m not into budgeting in the traditional sense but have enjoyed budgeting via a calendar approach so I can manage cash flow. This site is minimalistic but only what is needed. I’ve used it for over two years and love it.

This app has changed my budgeting for the better and helped me to get myself from bankruptcy to great credit by helping me not only see my bottom line but predict future spending and savings. Thank you!

I absolutely love CalendarBudget. I've been using it for years now and it has really helped me get on track with my finances. It's so easy to program in my recurring bills and income and see how much money is likely to be in my account on any given day.

While the iOS app may look dated, the concept of keeping a budget based on a calendar is fantastic. I love the concept, I wish the website and app get a major facelift but I still highly recommend CalendarBudget for anybody that wants to regain full control of their finances, discipline is required, but with this tool it gets easier (and when the auto-entries are up and running, I can imagine it will be even better).

Love this budgeting software. Long time user.

I have been using calendar budget for several years now. It was helpful in me pay off over 40,000. Great budgeting tool.

Calendar Budget got my budget back on track and my credit score is back to excellent. Being able to open this every morning and see what bills I needed to pay and what was coming up to pay kept me from getting late fees and hits to my credit score. I just wish it was still free, but to me it's still worth paying for to keep me on track.

I love this app/computer site so much! It has really helped me to get my finances on track!

Absolutely love it and recommend it to everyone, including my high school students. We are a family of 8 and growing and this helps us keep our finances in check so we can plan for vacations and new toys for the lake!

Great tool to help manage money.
I am not great at budgeting; However, I have used this app to prevent overdrafting and over-spending. Thank you.

Great app for budget tracking, highly recommend.

Reasonably priced, easy to use, and keeps track of your budget. Recommended.