I'm looking into online budget planners (preferable free ones) and wanted to know if anyone here has used any of these? What ones would you reccommend? did you find them to be helpful? Thanks!

I have Mint.com, and it's free, but it's not really what I want. I wonder if there are any out there that can look at my Quicken for me, then pre-fill the budget with what I'm already doing and let me adjust it afterwards. I tried the one on Quicken but it started me on a blank slate and I didn't feel like whipping out an adding machine and pouring through a printout to figure it. One thing I do like is that I have an iPhone and Mint is a free app on there, so when I'm not near a computer I can still look at everything.

What's Mint Like?

I like Quicken Online (free) more than mint.com for budgeting.

(Quicken just bought mint.com, so I bet they will become more similar in the future).

I use Mint.com as an evaluation tool for my spending habits. I maintain an elaborate (to say the least) spreadsheet that monitors my budget. All of my inputs (student loans, gi bill, work) are recorded along with all of my financial obligations and funds usage.

It has taken several drafts to get it where it is now, but I now have a decent real world projection of my monthly spending. It also projects future savings/spending.

I would spend sometime on an excel spreadsheet - as it is something easy to access that you can take ownership of. PM me if you would like a copy of it.

Quicken Online lets you set your own numbers but also tells you what your average spending has been in each category. Kind of a nice benchmark to see how much effort you need to put into reducing costs in that category.

Quicken Desktop is much better, but Quicken Online is a decent watered down version of it for free, with your account available from any computer with internet access.

Thanks all for the great advice. Anyone try budget5000?