• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Meet the Girl ↡
    • About Abby
    • Contact
  • Projects ↡
    • Organization
      • All Organization
      • Printables Library
      • Productivity
    • Decorating
      • Our Home Tour
        • Current House Home Tour
        • Townhouse Home Tour
      • All Decorating
      • DIY
      • Furniture Makeovers
      • Crafts
      • Holidays
    • Blogging
      • All Blogging
      • Income Reports
    • Happy Thoughts
  • My Products ↡
    • Impactful Habits, Organized Home Organizing Course
    • Browser to Buyer
    • Blogging Binder Printables
    • Home Binder Printables
    • Student Binder Printables
    • Christmas / Holiday Planner
    • Fitness Journal
  • Free Resources ↡
    • ClarityList for Bloggers
    • How to Start a Blog in 2020
    • 100+ Blogging Tips, Tools, and Resources to Grow Your Business
    • My Favorite Organizing Items
  • Income Reports

Abby Lawson logo

April 30, 2015 By Abby Lawson 22 Comments

My Favorite Paperless Budgeting Tool

Pin2K
Share6
Tweet2
Email
2K Shares

A huge thanks to Dave Ramsey's EveryDollar for sponsoring this post. My favorable opinion of awesome programs that make my life easier are 100% my own. 🙂 For more information, see my disclosures here.

My Favorite Paperless Budgeting Tool | Just a Girl and Her Blog

I've talked before about how Donnie and I are on somewhat opposite sides of the paper/paperless debate. He prefers everything paperless and does all record keeping, note taking, and planning electronically. I started out completely attached to my pen and paper, but he has slowly been luring me to the other side. 🙂 Though I still like to do a lot of my planning on paper, our household records, bills, and files are all currently paperless.

When it comes to making our budget, we've tried both ways. A while back we had an online budgeting system that was supposed to sync between our computers and smart phones and make our lives easier. I loved the idea of it, but in practice, it was glitchy, so we ultimately gave it up. I came up with my printable budget binder, and we've been using it ever since.

Now, I love, love, love my budget binder, but there are a few things that are more difficult with a paper budget vs. electronic: 1) There is only one, so only one spouse can have the binder in their possession at a time, and 2) It was too bulky to take with me everywhere. I ended up saving all of my receipts and entering them when I got home, but being able to enter everything at the time of purchase would have been convenient.

After the mess that was our previous attempt at an electronic budget, it was going to take a lot for me to attempt it again, but when my favorite budgeting guru-- Dave Ramsey-- rolled out his own online budgeting resource, I knew I had to give it a try, and I am SO glad that I did! If I was going to create an online version of my budget binder, Dave's program EveryDollar would be it. It applies so many of the principles that I used when I came up with my paper budget binder, and I love its convenience and simplicity. Because I think this is such a valuable budgeting tool, I created an example budget and decided to do a little walkthrough of EveryDollar to show how easy and effective it is.

Setting Up the Budget

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her BlogAs I did with my paper budget binder, I needed to start by getting my budget set up. I headed over to EveryDollar and created my account, and the first thing I was invited to do was start my "EveryDollar budget." If you're familiar with Dave Ramsey's principles, you know that he believes in assigning every dollar a "job." Basically, you take the amount of money you make each month, and divide it amongst your bills and expenses, putting every cent you make into a designated category until each dollar is accounted for. That's what they mean by an "EveryDollar budget." So I started by entering my [example] income and then began to fill in expenditures in different categories, starting with giving.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

As I enter my information, you can see that the graph on the right side of the screen updates with my income and expenses, including a percentage amount. I really liked that EveryDollar broke down the expenses into various categories and had pre-filled some of the more common expenses like mortgage and groceries, which could be added to or removed if need be. For example, we don't have cable, so I was able to click the little dots beside the pre-filled "Cable" category, a trash icon showed up, and I clicked it to delete that category.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

Like I did with my paper budget, I started by entering the expenses that are recurring each month, things like a mortgage, auto loans, insurance payments, utilities, etc.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

Once I had filled in my fixed expenses, I was able to see how much I had left for my non-fixed expenses like groceries, clothing, gas, entertainment, etc.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

As I filled in my categories, there was a little bar at the top of the screen that kept me updated and told me how much money I had left to assign to different areas. Once each dollar was accounted for, the program let me know that I had successfully created my EveryDollar budget! Yippee!

Tracking Expenses

So once I had my budget all filled out, as with my paper budget, I could start tracking my expenses to make sure I was staying under budget in all of my different categories. Let's say as I was setting up my budget on my computer, I decided to enter the receipt from yesterday's grocery trip.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

I click on my "Groceries" category and choose "Add New Transaction." Here I was able to choose the date, amount, and merchant. One really neat feature on this screen was the "Add a Split" option. If I'm at Trader Joe's and I decide to buy flowers, which would fall in my "Fun Money" category rather than "Groceries," the "Add a Split" feature allows me to split up my total right in this one screen rather than having to make two separate entries for purchases at the same store. This would especially come in handy at a store like Target, where I might have groceries, clothing, home decor, and gift purchases all on the same transaction.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

Being able to enter my receipts on the computer is great, but what is really convenient is being able to update my transactions right when they happen at the store. I was able to download the EveryDollar app on my iPhone so I can enter my spending immediately.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

My account is synced, so whenever I update my budget on the computer, the changes reflect on my phone, and vice versa.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

Entering transactions on my phone is equally as simple as on the computer. With similar options to the web version, I can fill in my info right as I'm checking out at the store or filling the pump at the gas station.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

It's so simple, and I always know with one glance where we stand for the month. If it's April 23rd and our grocery budget is almost depleted, I know I'm going to have to get a little creative in the kitchen for the rest of the month. 🙂 If it's nearing the end of the month and I haven't touched my clothing budget, I'm able to snag that new top I've had my eye on guilt-free because there is money in the budget designated for that. It's really easy to get a snapshot of what my spending looks like for the month-- where I need to be cautious and where I have a little wiggle room.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

All of the features I mentioned above are part of the free version of EveryDollar, but their Plus version makes tracking your expenses even easier. For just a few dollars per month, you can connect EveryDollar with your bank account and the "FastTrack" feature will automatically download your transactions for you-- all you have to do is put them in the correct categories! EveryDollar Plus also allows you to manage your bank accounts and credit cards all in one place.

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

Bonus: Track Your Baby Steps

If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, you will totally geek out over this next option like I did! Along with the budgeting tools, there is an area where you can track the progress you've made on your baby steps! If you're not familiar with them, Dave's baby steps are a logical progression of saving money and paying off debt that will help you make smart decisions for your financial future. The seven steps are...

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

{via}

Within EveryDollar, then, I can head to the "Baby Steps" tab and see how much progress I've made with each one:

The Paperless Budget with EveryDollar | Just a Girl and Her Blog

For me, it's really encouraging to see a visual representation of my progress. I want to see my emergency fund go up and my debts go down each month, and since it's so easy to check in on my progress, I'm motivated to keep those numbers moving in the direction I want them to go.

It doesn't take much poking around this blog to figure out that I am a huge, huge, huge proponent of budgeting! The task might seem daunting, but it is so important, and if you find the tools that work for you, it will be much easier than you think. If you're a paper and pencil person, by all means, snag my budget binder printables and hop to it! If you are more comfortable with paperless technology and an electronic budget, I encourage you to pop over to EveryDollar and give it a try.

I cannot express how freeing it is to be in control of where our money is going rather than feeling that helpless feeling when there never seems to be enough at the end of the month. Budgeting has been a total game changer for us, and I hope that it will be for your family as well. Happy budgeting!

What budgeting tools have been the most helpful for you? 

Delightful Sign Off

A huge thanks to Dave Ramsey's EveryDollar for sponsoring this post. My favorable opinion of awesome programs that make my life easier are 100% my own. 🙂 For more information, see my disclosures here.

Filed Under: Organization, Productivity Tagged With: budget, budgeting, dave ramsey, everydollar, paperless

Pin2K
Share6
Tweet2
Email
2K Shares
Free Printables Library at justagirlandherblog.com

Get 200+ pages of free printables!

Become one of our VIP newsletter subscribers and gain access to our exclusive free printables vault!

I want in!
Previous Post: « Master Bedroom Source List
Next Post: Insulator to Candle Holder Upcycle »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kara says

    April 30, 2015 at 6:19 am

    I saw this program recently and was curious about the difference between it and Mint. I've been using Mint for years and just recently got it set up so I could see my monthly budget categories. Have you ever used Mint? I need to find a comparison of the two programs. I love the idea of supporting Dave Ramsey's product, but what costs money in his product is free in Mint...

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      April 30, 2015 at 3:27 pm

      Hi, Kara! As far as Mint vs. EveryDollar, I would say I like the EveryDollar interface better. It's really well organized, and expenses are grouped into categories, which I like because I can get a clearer picture of what I'm spending my money on. You're right, though, that there are some expenses when it comes to EveryDollar's options. With budgeting, I think the biggest key is just finding a system that you'll stick with, so if Mint is working for you, definitely keep using it! If as you use it longer things aren't working so well anymore, try EveryDollar or the paper binder. We've done a bunch of different options during our marriage because we've had different needs during different phases of our lives, so we just find what works for that phase! Thanks so much for checking out my post! Have a wonderful day!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  2. Krista says

    April 30, 2015 at 8:49 am

    I'm such a pencil and paper kind of girl when it comes to budgeting... and pencil not pen, I like to be able to erase! My hubby is much more of the tech guy (maybe its a male female thing??) I'll have to check this out, it looks worth a try!

    Reply
  3. Tiffany says

    April 30, 2015 at 8:55 am

    Hi, Abby ~ Great post! Robb and I often talk about how much better we do with our money when I'm logging expenditures on a daily basis. I can only imagine how much we'd improve if we were tracking it on the spot! I'm so excited about EveryDollar. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  4. [email protected] says

    April 30, 2015 at 9:00 am

    This reminds me a lot of Mint, and we really love Mint. Something we love about doing it through an app is that we can easily update the budget throughout the month (instead of putting everything at the end of the month and holding our breath like we used to do). I also love that I can split the expenses easily.

    Reply
  5. Miriam B says

    April 30, 2015 at 9:25 am

    I loved this post! It was just the kick in the pants I needed to start using the EveryDollar system. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  6. Amy says

    April 30, 2015 at 9:38 am

    Thanks for sharing. I have been looking into EveryDollar for a few weeks now and was so excited to see your review. I have it on my to-do list to set up.

    Reply
  7. Amanda says

    April 30, 2015 at 9:40 am

    This post came at the perfect time! I actually found your website through a pin of your budget binder, and I love it! But like you said, I think a digital version is better so my husband can be in on it too. I have been trying various online tools and none of them worked for me. I also tried creating a system in Evernote... Another fail. I think this one will be absolutely perfect as we are trying to follow Dave's principles. Thanks for a great post, Abby!

    Reply
  8. [email protected] says

    April 30, 2015 at 9:45 am

    Oooh, I will have to check this out. I love all things Dave Ramsey 🙂 Though, like you, I tend to be a paper/ pencil person who loves my binder. This may convince me. Have you guys done mint.com or you need a budget (ynab)? What do you think about those?

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      April 30, 2015 at 3:33 pm

      Hi, Sarah! We used YNAB a few years ago, and we liked a lot of it's features. The syncing was a little glitchy for us, which got frustrating, but they may have fixed that by now. They also have a very specific budgeting strategy, and if we didn't want to use their exact strategy, it got a little hard because the program was only set up to be used that specific way. I have played around in mint a little bit and I know a lot of people that love it. It is a really good free option. I don't like the interface or the organization of it as much as EveryDollar, but it is still a good program. I think the key with budgeting is finding the program that you will stick with and running with it, so if you come across one that works for you, go with it!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  9. Cristina says

    April 30, 2015 at 10:33 am

    Yesss! I love EveryDollar so much! We went to the Smart Money event, and as soon as they started talking about it I immediately signed up! It's wonderful!

    Reply
  10. Chanel Wilson says

    April 30, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    OMG! where do I start? I'm young and there's sooo much I would like to achieve. Of late I've been trying to a lil organizing here and there and do some saving. I'm currently addicted to your site because of how inspired I am about all the info you got here and can use! I'll def. will be writing(emailing) you soon because I have tonz of questions to ask. lol!

    Reply
  11. Krysta says

    April 30, 2015 at 1:35 pm

    This may be obvious to someone who is more tech savvy than myself, but will my husband and I both be able to use the app on each of our phones with only one downloaded plus membership, or will we need to download the plus version to both of our phones and pay two subscriptions? We are both Dave Ramsey fans, so thank you for doing such a thorough review of this product. I was definitely curious about it!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      April 30, 2015 at 3:08 pm

      Hi, Krysta! The app has you log in with the info you use to create your account, so if you set up your account under your email address, both you and your husband should be able to enter your email address and password to log into the app on your phones, and they will both be synced with your computer, and you'll only have to pay for one plus membership. Does that make sense? I hope this helps! Happy budgeting! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  12. Dani Rotramel says

    April 30, 2015 at 1:47 pm

    I set up Dave's budget this month after our daughter heard about it at his seminar. It is terrific. I am still learning how to work with the savings accounts, investments and funds. Would love to see a post on these as the Help articles in EveryDollar are limited.

    Reply
  13. Rachel says

    April 30, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    Last December, I used your printables to create my budget binder for 2015. It's the first time I actually set a budget and it has saved my sanity. I have tried Mint in the past, and I got so fed up that I quit budgeting altogether a few years ago.

    I've been following your blog for a few months now and I know you and Donnie are trying to make your entire life paperless. I surely hope you create another printable for a 2016 budget binder, because this has helped me take charge of my finances SO, so much.

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      April 30, 2015 at 3:10 pm

      Hi, Rachel! No plans to get rid of the paper option! I totally understand the need for pen and paper, as that is most often my preference too! I just wanted to be sure to share a paperless option as well because I know people (like my hubby!) are more oriented that way and might be more likely to stick with it. I say, if you've found a solution that works for YOU, stick with it, whether it be paper or paperless! 🙂 Hope you're having a wonderful week!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  14. Vanessa says

    April 30, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    I signed up for EveryDollar the day it went live, and have REALLY enjoyed being able to track expenses on the go. I am typically a budgeting nerd, but this was a game-changer for me. It is so much easier to use than other budgeting tools, and like Dave says, it's important to have control of allocating where the money is spent, rather than it being an automated feature. Highly recommended!

    Reply
  15. Megan @ Straight From The Jar says

    May 07, 2015 at 4:06 pm

    My boyfriend and I have been using this the last few weeks and it is amazing! So user friendly and really keeps us accountable for spending. Such a great tool. 🙂

    Reply
  16. Liz says

    June 01, 2015 at 4:16 am

    Hi Abby, thanks for your blog. Just a quick question, does the Every Dollar program allows for any other currency than dollars?

    Reply
  17. Sarah says

    November 06, 2015 at 11:26 am

    Hey Abby, It's been a few months since you originally posted about Every Dollar. Are you still using it? How's it going after some time has passed. My hubby and are considering signing up soon and wanted some feedback on your experience over a period of time. Thanks! Love your blog!

    Reply
  18. Rachel Nyp says

    February 13, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    Nice article. We use excel right now but I like the idea of being able to access it anywhere. We are
    so close to finishing our debt. I have even started to sell cash envelopes on Etsy to make a little extra to put towards our debt. https://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftySundays

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You have to agree to the comment policy.

Primary Sidebar

Hey there, friend! I'm Abby, and I'm so thrilled you stopped by! I love working to create a beautiful, thriving home, life and business and helping others do the same.

Read my story→

Let's Connect!

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Let's Get Organized!

Impactful Habits, Organized Home Organizing Course | https://www.abbylawson.com/ihoh
Deluxe Home Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-home-binder-printables

Stick to your fitness goals!

Deluxe Fitness Journal | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-fitness-journal-printables

How to Start a Blog

How to Start a Blog: The Definitive Guide

Our Course for Bloggers

Blogging: Organized

Deluxe Blogging Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-blogging-binder-printables

Favorite Posts

Free Printable Library | 50+ Free Organizing Printables

50+ Free Printables to Organize Every Area of Your Life

home- cozy office nook, feminine home office, organized home office, small office, decorating, farmhouse office

A Cozy Office Nook

Ryan Homes Palermo Before and After Home Tour 2.5 Years In

Before and After Home Tour: Two and a Half Year Update

Free Printable Budget Binder Cover

Budget Binder for 2021 (with FREE Printables!)

Home organization- How to Organize Every Space in Your House, declutter, organizing, small space organization

How to Organize Every Space in Your House

Student Binder Printable Organizing Pages

Printable Student Binder

Personal Posts

Breast Cancer Awareness Month My Story by Just a Girl and Her Blog

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: My Story

This girl started out knowing nothing about blogging or online business and made 6 figures last year. Time to start that blog I've been thinking about!

From Hobby Blog to Thriving Business: My Blogging Story

Archives

Post Categories

Copyright

I love it when you share! Please keep in mind that all images and text on this site are property of Just a Girl and Her Blog. Feel free to use one or two photos provided that a link back to my original post is included. Please do not remove any watermarks, crop, or edit any of my images without first obtaining written permission from me. All free printables offered are for personal use only. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated! Thank you!

Privacy Policy & Disclosures

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Read our privacy policy and disclosures →

© 2021 Twenty Three Publishing LLC