Quicken has a wide range of budget and spending analysis tools built in. There's nothing easier or better that I know of.

Do you already have your financial accounts set for auto downloading? Bank accounts, charge accounts, investment accounts, etc.? Do you update at least several times per month and promptly review the transactions to correct categorization? You should, you should and you should, and with that, you'd have a budget set up and ready to work with in less than 30 minutes.

A budget to spending analysis has two inputs - your budget by category and then actual amounts. If you're using Quicken correctly (and there are plenty of shortcuts to take, it's not like you need to track every penny), with their choices of tools for setting up budgeting, almost all the work is done for you.

Keeping my records current and reviewing activity takes me 10 minutes a week or less, although my situation isn't very difficult.

If you don't want to use the built in budgeting features, then do a simple budget with pencil and paper and use Quicken's monthly spending reports by category to compare actuals to your budget.

For PC based software, do you remember Microsoft Money? How about Managing Your Money? Both of these, and a number of others, came and went because consumers found Quicken to be a superior product. As with most other categories, I'm sure there are some open source programs available, but for as cheap and as good as Quicken is, i wouldn't waste your time.

The link below (found by Googling) is a video from the Quicken site that explains how to set up a budget. Post back if you have questions I might be able to answer. I'm not a power user by any means, and in fact i don't use the budgeting feature (because I don't want or need to), but I've used the program for 5 or so years and can find my way though it pretty easily. Note, there is also a pretty active user forum (which I also don't use) where questions can be answered. When the need arises, I've found Quicken's call up tech support is very good. .

Here is a link that might be useful: Video- setting up a Quicken budget

I use Quicken and it does have budget offering under Planning on the toolbar.

I have seen on-line Mint recommended. It too is provided by
Intuit, the creator of Quicken. I just did a stroll down Google lane using the keywords "mint budget" (sans quotes) and found some pertinent offerings.

Since Mint is web-based if it requires the user to enter bank account numbers I personally for security purposes would enter representative numbers rather than actual account numbers. But that's just me.

DA

A very simple version.
There is no need for difficulty. Budgeting is little more than where you have been and where you want to go. Where you have been will help determine what is next. Start with a sheet of paper to list the things for which you spent money in the past year �" looking at your check book, credit cards. After that, determine which kinds of things you need to track in the future. Food, doctors, prescriptions (if significant), entertainment, house payments, phone/TV, etc. It doesnâÂÂt matter which category you place an item in �" so it makes sense to you. Put the selected items on paper and add the spending by month. Expenses over the past year may tell you what you will probably spend in the future unless you make changes in your habits and desires. Do the same for your income. That may be your next years budget unless you want to make changes. Unusual spending and income can be left out of the budget. A few pieces of paper and a small add/subtract calculator

I don't know why a Google search is any more or less "sinister" than a Yahoo search or a DuckDuckGo search. G just happens to be bigger-more popular and thus attracts more hate from it's critics. The current offerings from Quicken all claim to "help you create a budget", for whatever that's worth. The most recent version of Quicken that will run on XP is 2014, but there are special install instructions for it. Check out the System Requirements prior if you choose to go that route.

Without knowing what kind of "simple budget" you actually want, answers are like throwing darts at a dartboard. Do you need to do something more than just tracking monthly spending by category and then subtract those sums from monthly income? Excel could do that and if you don't know how to create such a spreadsheet, someone with basic Excel skills ought to be able to do that much easily. Once it was done, all you'd have to do is accurately plug in the numbers and remember to SAVE when finished.

AceMoney Lite sounds like a possibility for you. You could also consider GnuCash and jGnash (which requires Java). No, I haven't used any of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: AceMoney Lite

Thanks, Snidley, your information was very helpful. I've had Quicken a year and find it complicated and not easy to use. Some accounts get downloaded, others say there is a problem and can't download. I've been manually adding those. Being retired, we have an IRA we have to withdraw from, that won't download, will not download my husbands credit card statements as they are in his name, etc.

I figured if I have to manually enter, I might as well just use a simple budget tool.

Another problem is it enters some accounts twice, so I have to go through each page deleting each duplicate.

Takes me more time than it's worth.

Azinoh, I know how to Google and do so regularly yet do not download something I don't know. I certainly don't download without a getting a recommendation. That's why I posted here.

Thanks again, Snidley

Jane