I Tried 6 Budget Apps. The Spreadsheet Won.

Six budget apps, six months. Two were genuinely useful. Three were over-engineered. The simplest tool — a spreadsheet I built in 40 minutes — outperformed every paid app.

The personal finance industry sells you complexity. Envelopes, sub-accounts, zero-based budgeting, sinking funds, percentage allocations. The complexity is the product because it makes you feel like you're doing something. After six months I figured out the question wasn't "which tool?" It was "what's the smallest tool that gives me the information I actually need?"

The apps I tried

YNAB ($14/month). Powerful but punishing. The setup took two weekends and the daily upkeep felt like a part-time job. Worth it if you have a real cash-flow problem; overkill if you don't.

Monarch Money ($14/month). Modern interface, good aggregation. The forecasting tools were the highlight. Felt like a 7/10 across the board, but I wasn't using 60% of what I was paying for.

Empower (free). Excellent for net-worth tracking. Mediocre for monthly budgeting. The free price tag is real; the recurring sales calls trying to upsell their wealth management are also real.

Mint (RIP). Was the answer for years; Intuit killed it in 2024.

Copilot ($9/month). Slickest interface of the bunch. Felt like Apple Notes for money. Solid choice if you want one app.

Tiller ($79/year). Spreadsheet-based budget that pulls bank data into Google Sheets. This was the one that almost won.

What I actually use now

A Google Sheet with eight rows and three columns. Income, fixed expenses, variable spending budget, debt principal paid, savings deposited. Updated once a week. That's it.

For the deeper picture once a month, I open Empower (free) and look at net worth. That's the entire stack. Total cost: $0.

Why the spreadsheet wins

I see exactly what I need. There's no graph showing me my Starbucks spending broken down by store location. The information density matches the decision density. Most apps over-deliver data and under-deliver decisions.

The books that taught me to simplify

The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham — the chapter on the long view of saving cuts through 90% of the financial-product industry. Rich Dad Poor Dad for the income-vs.-assets distinction. Atomic Habits for the daily-tracking habit that makes the spreadsheet stick.

The honest answer

Spend on the simplest tool you'll actually use, not the most powerful tool you might use. If you're a high-cash-flow person who genuinely needs zero-based envelopes, pay for YNAB. Everyone else: a spreadsheet and a monthly look-back. The complicated apps are a tax on people who think they need permission to be organized with money.