The point of money management software is to use our current level of technology to save time and increase efficiency when working with a budget or allocating funds. The only problem is that most money management software is made extremely complicated with features that the vast majority of individuals working on their budget will never even think to use.Software developers think that a program being "powerful" means that it has more bells and whistles than other money management programs. Unfortunately for the end user, this creates confusion which leads to worse money management.
You may be surprised to know that if you have Windows, then you already have all of the money management software that you need. Simply put, you can do 99% of your necessary money management and budgeting with the calculator that comes with Windows and a word processor. You can use a spreadsheet if you'd like, but not all computers have a spreadsheet. Additionally, a spreadsheet adds another level of complexity to people who aren't extremely familiar with computers and can alienate them.
The idea is to have money management software that anyone can use, and to be able to use it effectively. So here's what you do. Start off by pulling up Notepad and the Calculator in Windows. Save your Notepad file as something like "Budget.txt". At the top of the file, write all of your sources of income and how much you expect that to be per month. Next, leave some space and then write out all of your necessary bills with how much they cost. It could look something like this:
Paycheck .......+$395
Power Bill .....-$150
Rent ...........-$100
Groceries ......-$ 60
And so on. Eventually you'll have an amount left over, and from this amount you'll want to allocate funds for savings accounts, investments, and other goodies. The trick with money management software is for it to be put to use and be practical, not to have a bunch of features that you will never use.