EveryDollar Budgeting App Review - Is It Worth The Price?

“It’s an EveryDollar budget!”
EveryDollar

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What Is EveryDollar?

EveryDollar is the digital budgeting tool created by Dave Ramsey’s team over at Ramsey Solutions.

EveryDollar’s aim is to ensure you follow Dave’s advice of giving every dollar a job before the month begins. He calls this “spending your money on paper.”

If you are not following Dave’s financial plan, I’m going to recommend that you still take a look at this article.

How To Set Up EveryDollar

The first thing I’ll note about EveryDollar is that it is exactly what it claims to be; nothing more, nothing less. While services like Personal Capital provide a massive package of financial tools (Review Here), EveryDollar focuses on doing one thing well. Depending on what you’re looking for, this may be a positive or a negative thing.

Because of it’s streamlined approach, EveryDollar is extremely easy to navigate. Almost all the information you need to get a clear snapshot of your budget appears on one page. I love this feature! (Contrast this with other budgeting apps like Mint which require you to navigate through multiple tabs to view the various aspects of your budget.)

EveryDollar allows you to organize your budget on this page with an incredible level of flexibility. You begin by creating “groups,” which are essentially your budget categories. Within these groups, you create your specific line items and assign them the expected monetary amount.

As you work through setting up your budget, EveryDollar tracks how much you have left to budget and displays that number at the top of the page. Once you’ve used every dollar available in your “Income” group, EveryDollar displays the message “It’s an EveryDollar budget!”

How To Use EveryDollar

Once you’re all set up, it’s time to start tracking. Along with your custom groups, you’ll also see a pie chart and list of groups on the right side of the screen. This displays what percentage of your income is going to each category. You can have this display what you planned, what you’ve spent, or what you have remaining to spend.

At the top of your screen there is a plus sign under the word transactions. If you have synced your accounts, there may be a number here showing how many transactions you need to sort. If not, simply click the plus sign to manually add transactions.

Transactions are sorted by dragging them to the designated line item. That’s it. I love this functionality compared to the drop down and select functionality of other budgeting tools. Something about this physical dragging of transactions and watching the bar of available funds decrease in real time really helps you to understand that you spent that money.

Unlike other budgeting tools, EveryDollar will not make assumptions about where to sort your money. You will need to manually drag and drop every transaction. In a fully automated world, you may see this as a downside. But, I would argue this forces you to visit your budget regularly and will help you really track your habits accurately.

What Is The Price?

There are two versions of EveryDollar available as of this writing. The free version provides complete functionality, but does not allow for bank account connectivity. On the other hand, the paid version allows you to connect your accounts. The obvious benefit here is that by connecting your accounts, you will not need to manually enter individual transactions.

The paid version is now included with a subscription to “Ramsey+,” which you can read more about here (Click Here).

The pricing for this service is $129.99 for an annual subscription. This is the least expensive option in the long run.

You might also do 6 months for $99.99, or 3 months for $59.99.

Now, it’s worth noting that Dave offers a 14-day free trial. This is more than enough time to set up your budget and get a feel for the app if you really want to see if it’s for you before paying.

(These prices are accurate at the time of writing, but subject to change.)

Now, is that expensive? Well, sure, it’s not cheap. But, the tools and information are invaluable and well worth the price you pay.

Final Verdict

EveryDollar is, hands down, my personal choice for budgeting. The flexibility and visual layout can’t be beat. On top of that, the basic functionality encourages good habits in a way the “set it and forget” style apps never will.

While the price may seem high, I find it more than worth it.

Ready to get your EveryDollar budget in place and start winning financially?

Remember, regardless of your money goals, you can “Bank on a Budget” to get you from where you are to where you want to be!

EveryDollar is, hands down, my personal choice for budgeting. The flexibility and visual layout can’t be beat. On top of that, the basic functionality encourages good habits in a way the “set it and forget” style apps never will.

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Alex

Hello, my name is Alex! I'm a public school teacher who has achieved some big financial goals just by getting control of my money using some simple strategies like using a monthly budget. Now I'd like to share what I've learned with you. Welcome to "Bank on a Budget!"