Budgeting apps seemed like a joke until my spreadsheets got too messy to follow

For years I tracked everything in a spiral notebook, pen and paper style. Then my cousin showed me why she switched to YNAB after messing up her own numbers for six months. I tried it back in March and it caught a $37 subscription I forgot to cancel from 2019. Now I can see exactly where my paycheck goes without erasing and rewriting every week. The learning curve was steep but the first month I saved $210 just by noticing what I actually spent on gas and snacks. Has anyone else had that moment where a tool you ignored ended up proving you wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleybutler5d ago

My buddy laughed at apps until one caught his double gym membership.

baker.riley5d ago

Argue the other side of this one (because why not). Those tracking apps are basically handing your data to advertisers for free, and the savings are usually tiny compared to what they upsell you on. I've seen people get stuck in a cycle of downloading five different apps and still never canceling anything, just paying for all of them instead of just the gym. Probably better off just writing your subscriptions down on paper once a month (old school but it actually works) and keeping your phone clean.