Last month was actually the third anniversary of this site. On some occasions, it seems like I’ve been blogging forever, while on other days, it feels like it was just yesterday when I began doing this as a hobby. The past year seemed to fly by pretty fast!
Well, to mark the occasion, which also appears to have coincided with our three millionth visitor to the site(!), I’d like to host a giveaway of my favorite budgeting tool: YNAB (You Need A Budget) personal budget software. I’ve mentioned this desktop software package a few times on this site and it’s no secret that I like what it has to offer. While free budgeting tools seem to be the rage these days, those of you who feel more comfortable about doing your money management in your own secure desktop environment will appreciate a tool like YNAB, which has proven to be a great alternative to the more popular Quicken and the now defunct MS Money.
YNAB Pro Download Giveaway Details
The following giveaway has already expired. But here is how it was conducted:
I will be giving away free copies of YNAB plus a few other items.
1. A copy of YNAB Pro software (for 2 recipients). Note that YNAB Pro doesn’t run on the Mac though a future version of YNAB to be released shortly, will be. Winners will receive a free upgrade to YNAB 3 when it comes out.
2. One Lending Club t-shirt (size L) bundled with one financial book (for 3 recipients).
As a blogger, I receive a lot of books to give away. So for this opportunity, I’ll be sending out the following books: Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Killing Sacred Cows and 10,0001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget to three readers. Each book will come with a t-shirt from Lending Club, a top peer to peer lending network. For more information on both Lending Club and YNAB, you can check out this article.
How To Join Our Giveaway
Here are some (hopefully) simple instructions for participating in this giveaway:
1. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my feed here via RSS or email.
2. You’ll find a special code at the bottom of the articles that you’ll start receiving from the feed.
3. Leave me a comment below with your email address and that code, and they’ll count as 2 entries to the giveaway (you won’t see these comments published here, but I will be counting them).
4. Existing subscribers will find that code already at the bottom of each new post received through the feed, so you can just enter a comment here with that code.
5. Alternatively, you can leave a comment below (this post) that discusses your best tip to manage your budget during the holiday season. This comment will garner you 1 entry to the giveaway.
6. I’ll run the giveaway for a few days, then I’ll announce the winners and contact them personally for shipping information (U.S. residents only).
My Big Thanks
Thanks again to everyone for helping this blog make it through yet another year in the personal finance online universe 
. A heartfelt thanks to all you awesome readers, subscribers, visitors, commentators, fellow bloggers and advertisers for all your support! I hope that I, as well as wonderful guest writers who’ve published their work through this site, have been able to contribute something positive to your personal finance journey.
Copyright © 2009 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey SVB!
My best holiday budgeting tip is simply to make a list and STICK with it. Too many times I have bought on impulse because I didn’t pre-plan. Another one a lot of my friends use is to stick with cash. Take out all of the money you have budgeted for gifts in cash and once it runs out..that’s it! No more overspending and it keeps you and your wallet in check.
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We (my wife and I) are using a Google Docs spreadsheet to plan what presents we will buy. We have one tab for each person, and we are putting gift ideas on the person’s tab. Over thanksgiving we will decide which presents each person is getting, and order them.
For anything that is a likely Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal, we will wait until the sales are announced so we don’t miss a deal.
The list is supposed to help us avoid impulse buys this year, and balance how much we spend on people.
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Great website and great giveaway!
(I don’t have any great tips for saving money at holiday time… but I look forward to reading some.)
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Every year I have a saving club specifically for Christmas at my local Credit Union. I put $80 each month into that account as we have a rather large, close family. My check is issued each October so I am able to start my shopping early. I also do look through out the year for any special items that would suit an individual that might not be available at Christmas time.
I would love to win the YNAB Pro for my new business start – up.
Thanks to those submitting their entries. Just a confirmation that I am receiving your entries, but if they have just the code in them, I do not publish your comment (and will count your entries). If you have a tip, I will publish it as a comment but count your entries accordingly if you also include the code with your tip (for a total of 3 entries).
Comment with Tip = 1 entry
Comment with Code = 2 entries
Comment with Code and Tip = 3 entries
Thanks everyone!
I am a current MS Money Plus user, and was not too happy to hear that Microsoft is discontinuing this product. I’ve tried Mint.com and other similar services in the past, and though I like the immediate “State of my Money”, I like to manually balance my books, as I always seem to find a few issues here & there.
Another option is to use an online service called clearcheckbook.com. Though it allows manual entry, It still appears to be a work in progress, and the price is steep at $42/year. I’d be more interested in YNAB Pro as it appears to be more robust w/ a 1-time fee.
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Awesome contest, I’ve been wanting to try out YNAB
The easiest way for me to manage holiday shopping is with a simple spreadsheet. Lately, I’ve set it up on Google Docs so my fiance and I can collaborate. We just list out all of the people that we want to shop for, the types of things that they may want, and then the items that we have purchased with cost, location, and date. These are then summed and we have totals. I use color coding to show when I am low, getting close, and over. Simple, yet effective
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I’m a mess and need the assist! I would love to use this as a get started tool.
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Tip: Buy presents throughout the year as I find them… helps the budget and the stress level!
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I can’t wait to try out YNAB! Every year I tell myself that I am going to get my finances organized by Jan 1 with some sort of money management software so that when tax-time comes I will have all the info I need.
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My money saving plan for this Christmas is to cut back on the number of people that I give gifts to. I have also categorized the recipients and put a max dollar amount next to each category e.g. Family = $50 per person, Friends = $30 per person, Others = $20 per person. I keep an envelope with cash, my list with my $ limits, names and potential gift ideas in my purse and if I find myself in a store I can pull out the list. If it gets near Christmas and I haven’t found a good gift, I will get an appropriate gift card and put it in with their Christmas card (I read on another forum – I forget which one – that you can purchase gift cards at a discount at Sam’s or Costco. I will definitely be checking that out!) Also, a lot of stores around here offer a discount if you purchase 6 bottles of wine. I take advantage of that so I will have a some on hand to bring as a gift if invited to a party, or if I’m caught in a situation where I need a last minute gift.
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I am looking forward to using YNAB on my Mac. Thanks for the chance to win it.
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Congratulations! TDL is one of my favorite blogs and I hope to read it many many years from now too!
Make a list of everyone that you want to give a gift to. Prioritize that list and put a dollar amount next to each person. Add those numbers up and that is your Christmas gift giving budget. Don’t go over it.
Tip; Mint.com is a great tool to keep track of all your accounts; And The reason why i have so many accounts is that I try out several banks each year, to see what bank have good features, rates and bonces for there customers.
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I have heard good things about YNAB, I bet its better than my Excel file.
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Congrats on 3 years! Great work! Looking forward to reading the next year.
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My tip is that I use an ING subaccount to slowly save up throughout the year for gifts. Each January I set a dollar amount for each person on my lists for Christmas, birthdays and other holidays. I then pad an extra 25% into it because I always forget someone or some event. Anything left in the account at the end of the year is rolled over into the new year and I make up the difference with a monthly deposit (automatic transfer).
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Saving money during the holidays – like the rest of the year – isn’t hard if you just plan ahead. I started keeping a spreadsheet for the Christmas gifts that I buy for everyone. I fill it out as I think of things throughout the year, and sometimes I insert links to merchant websites and/or prices. I don’t buy anything until my list is complete, and I know what I’m spending.
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Great giveaway!! I have tried this software, looking for a replacement for MS Money, and it looks good so far.
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Ironic that I discovered your blog today and just downloaded YNAB yesterday (after much procrastination). My tip is more an advisement/question–that if you use E*Trade (which I do, as a brokerage and online banking), then you cannot export your financial data into .ofx or .qfx formats. And the .csv export to excel was unpopulated (blank) when I downloaded it. Has anyone found a safe way to mitigate this?
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Hi, I am currently using Mvelopes, but I am dying to try out the new YNAB 3 when it comes out!
What do I say about managing your money during this holiday season? First of all, plan ahead! Start planning for NEXT Christmas now, start putting money aside for next Christmas NOW! Secondly, use a spreadsheet to track all your gift purchases, making sure you are keeping under budget. Plan for how much dollars is going to everyone that you are buying gifts for and make that total to be a bit lower than the money that you saved, because everyone knows that sometimes you go over on a gift here or there. This way you won’t go over your total budget.
And finally, look for the best deals!
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Winners to be announced on 11/25/09. Thanks to all who’ve joined!