I think is the best solution for most who want to budget online. And it handles “cash” envelopes quite well.

YNAB is online software that costs $84 per year (although they claim $8 per month). They give a 34-day trial, even if you’ve tried before. If you’d like to check it out my referral link it’s here. The software is powerful and works well.

It’s similar to Quicken, if you’ve used that before. Except, instead of revolving around transactions, it focuses on your budget. You create a zero-based budget with category budgets totaling your monthly income.

See: Why We’re Tracking 14 Spending Categories

How easy is it to use?

The basic interactions of entering transactions and budgeting should feel easy to most.

It can be tricky to grasp some of the larger concepts in the software such as age-of-money and credit card use. Classes are free and plentiful as are online articles and videos. When in real doubt the reddit /r/YNAB group is wonderful at problem solving.





How can I envelope budget?

You fund a budget category with a certain amount of dollars. Then you spend from a credit card, debit card or a cash wallet account. Categorize the transaction. Your category envelope will be reduced by that amount of money.

Example: You budget $400 for groceries in December. On December 5th you make a $75 purchase at Wal-mart for groceries on your credit card. You are then left with $325 to spend in the month. YNAB makes it easy to check your envelope balances at any time. There is even an Alexa app.

YNAB is also great for handling Sinking Funds.

Pros

You can try it without a credit card.

Great onboarding videos and free classes.

A clean user interface including a great app.

Cloud-based. No software to mess with and your information is available for you anywhere.

Cons