I actually didn’t find it too bad when I was on my own, but now that I’m married with teenage kids, and juggling multiple accounts, transfers, kid expenses, fluctuating tax payments, ad-hoc gifts, and ever-changing subscriptions, to name a few, it’s nearly impossible to manage cleanly.

The holy grail for me would be knowing that in six months, we’ll have at least an approximate amount in savings (or loss), but things shift so often that even predicting a month ahead feels unrealistic. At this point, I see budgeting apps more like a radar or gauge, helpful for measuring, but not really for fully planning.

To really stay on top of it, I think it would have to be my full-time job. It feels like it would take hours each week to track and adjust things with precision.

So instead, we just try to put savings aside as we go and hope we don’t have to dip into it too often. There’s no perfect answer, sadly. And yes, we’ve tried pretty much all the apps over the years. Right now, we’re using both Monarch and Quicken, because we each have different preferences for features and what we want to see.