Mvelope Budgeting

Yesterday, Facebook reminded me of this post on my timeline:

And you know what? I WAS crazy!  Here's why: Google Sheets did NOT work.  It was a good idea and all, but it was just too cumbersome and unpractical for what I wanted to do to keep track of my finances.  And so, after several months of trying to keep up with the spreadsheet to do a version of "virtual envelope budgeting", and one very long stretch of not balancing my register (resulting in a 10-hour project to bring it all back up to date), I said, "There's got to be a better way!"

And that's when I found Mvelopes.

Usually when I find a new tool that I think is going to be very useful I go and blab about it right away to everybody with tons of excitement.  Half the time the tool ends up being a flop--just like the Google Sheets option.  This time I gave it some time.  But after a month of using Mvelopes, this app has not failed me.

When I went looking for a new way to keep track of my finances, I was looking for three main features:

1. The app had to make it easy to separate out my finances into mini savings accounts--envelopes--to keep track of how much my budget would allow me to spend on what.
2. The app had to be quick and easy to use while on the go so I wouldn't get so far behind again.
3. The app had to be easy to connect to my credit card.  I buy almost everything on the card and pay it off right away.  Gotta earn those Cabelas points!

After reading some reviews, I decided to try Mvelopes.  I've used Mvelopes for a month now, and without fail it has met all of my requirements and more.  The app is all about helping you budget envelope-style, so that one was perfect right away.  It is also so easy to use. 



(Screenshot longer than actual screen--will have to scroll to see full image on phone)

Once you have all your envelopes set up to keep track of where you can spend all your money, you'll be entering transactions as you buy so that you can keep those balances up to date.  I love this screen where you enter your transactions because it takes about 10 seconds to plug it all in.  And see that part that says "Receipt"?? You can actually take a picture of your receipt so if you want details on what you bought later, you can just pull it up!

And don't worry, if you forget to enter a transaction right after, no problem.  If you connect the app to your online banking systems so that it pulls your transactions into the app as your account is updated, you'll see those transactions in the app each day.  All you have to do is some swiping, either to match up a transaction you have already recorded, or to assign a transaction you didn't record to an envelope so you can update your balances.  I love this feature!

So, that's requirements 1 and 2 from above covered.  And covered really well.  Now for the part where I integrate my credit card.  This is the only part where I would take a point off.  Mvelopes actually does integrate credit cards into its program, and it does make it easy to keep track of those transactions.  My only trouble was that when you first set it up, it's not obvious how that is going to work.  If you buy something with your credit card and you go to record it in the app, Mvelopes has you choose your credit card as the "account" in the record screen (see above).  It takes that money and it puts it in an envelope marked "Money for".  This way, the money is designated for your credit card so you know you have it available to pay the credit card.  Maybe I was just making it too complicated in my head, but I had to wait to see a live transaction from my credit card company come through to really understand how it was going to work.  The other little thing is that I try to pay off transactions every few days by transaction instead of just paying the balance on my statement at the end of the month.  So I had to tweak my methods a little to be able to keep track of that.  Mvelopes has a nice feature where you can tag a transaction and then the system will pull transactions by tags into reports for you if you want.  This feature is only available on the desktop view though, so I can only catch up on paying my credit card on a computer.  Still, I am very happy with the fact that the credit card integration exists and works well overall.

The last big feature that I really love about this program wasn't even on my list, but makes my life so much easier: saved budgets.  This is a feature where you can tell Mvelopes what you plan to put in each envelope when you get paid and save those numbers.  Then when you get paid, you just go in, and with a few taps, Mvelopes will disburse your money into your envelopes!  The really neat part about that is that you can set it up for whatever timeline of pay-periods you have: weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, or anything else. 

Mvelopes accounts can also be accessed by different devices through the app or a browser at the same time.  This means you and your spouse can see the same information if you both sign into the account with the same sign-in. 

Mvelopes basic is free.  You get 25 envelopes.  For most people, the basic account will be sufficient.  I ended up getting the premium account (at a modest price) because I found it easier to plan when each of my bills was in a separate envelope.

Long story short, this is a DEFINITELY a program/app you need to check out if you like to envelope budget without using cash.

Crafts with Drinking Straws