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Monday Night Finance- Volume 9

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Monday, 13 April 2020 / Published in Monday Night Finance

Monday Night Finance- Volume 9

Welcome to Monday Night Finance- a roundup of our favorite recent personal finance articles.

15 Cable TV Alternatives You Should Consider

With coronavirus causing many businesses to shut down, many people are looking for ways to save money. Cable TV is a monthly expense that can easily be cancelled to save money. However, while cable bills are astronomical, they do provide a wealth of television content. If you still want access to more television content than you can get with your antenna but aren’t willing to pay for cable TV channels you never watch, then this article is for you.

Cable TV can be expensive and can force you to pay for a huge amount of bloat in which you have no interest whatsoever. When was the last time you watched public access TV? ~Bob from the Frugal Fellow

In this article, Bob from the Frugal Fellow reviews 12 different streaming alternatives to cable TV. Some of the streaming services that he reviews, like Netflix, provide their own content and/or shows and movies that have aired previously. Other services, like Sling TV, provide access to select live television channels on a streaming platform at a significant reduction to the cost of cable TV. If you still have cable this is a great guide to map out which services would suit your needs and how much they would cost. Even if you’ve already cut the cord, this is a great guide to see if you can reduce your streaming costs or figure how much it’d cost to add in something that would bring you value.

Managing My Finances During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major financial disturbances across the world economy. Those disruptions are playing across each household differently. In the United States, weekly unemployment claims have been at all time highs the last three weeks. Even those people that still have a job may have had a reduction in hours. On the spending side, many daycares have closed and people aren’t commuting anymore. It seems everyone’s budgets have changed dramatically in just a couple of weeks. Kris, from Chronicles of a Father with Cents, detailed how his family’s finances have changed as a result of the pandemic.

Grocery spending and take-out food will be our main expenses for the time being. Grocery expenses have always been one of our main expenses every month but we will plan to spend even more in the coming months with the shelter in place order. ~Kris at Chronicles of a Father with Cents

Kris is still able to draw his salary through the end of April and has minimal telework responsibilities. He is using this extra time to learn new coding skills and spend time with his son. Kris has fewer daycare costs and is saving money on commuting. However, he is spending more money on groceries and takeout food during this time.

Dreams and Goals and Money: Are Yours United?

Do you have a list of your financial dreams? If not, could you easily write them down, or would you have no idea where to begin? Darcy, of WeWantGuac.com believes that financial success cannot happen without financial dreams. In this post, Darcy lists all of the reasons why it’s good to have dreams and how to align your dreams with money.

Your money and your dreams are irrevocably linked. You cannot get one to grow without the other. ~Darcy at WeWantGuac

Having a dream helps you prioritize. If it’s your dream to become a professional football player, swimming laps probably isn’t a great use of your time. Likewise, your financial dream will help you shape what you do with your money. Having dreams then allows you to break your dreams into goals, which will eventually lead to influencing every day choices. For instance, Darcy furnished her apartment for $100, which allowed her to invest her money to achieve her dreams which include becoming financial independent, building a killer dream home on a mountain, and providing a safe home for foster children.

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What you can read next

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Monday Night Finance- Volume 26
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Monday Night Finance- Volume 35
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Monday Night Finance- Volume 45

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Barbara Ann Feeney
16-05-2016

I switched from pencil and paper on grid accounting paper, then to a Google spreadsheet, then to CountAbout. Really happy with how this app makes it easy to track how I doing, staying (or not) on budget.

 
‏@davepurcell
15-11-2016

I rarely tweet endorsements, but -- after years of using/hating Quicken, Countabout is awesome for tracking home budget/finances. Thx!

 
David M.
16-07-2016

CountAbout is as easy to use on my mobile as it is on the desktop and it provides me with the same or better information than Quicken.

 
Nate E.
05-02-2016

Fantastic! I finally found a great replacement for Quicken! CountAbout is entirely cloud-based, so you can access it from whatever OS you happen to be using. And the mobile app isn't hamstrung like Quicken's. No looking back for me, this is a great app and a great service!

 
My Bank Tracker
24-11-2016

...you won’t be bombarded with ads when you log in. Mint, for example, uses targeted ads to help keep the platform free. All in all, CountAbout could be a good choice for Quicken and Mint users who want to start fresh with their finances without losing their past transaction history.

 
Mark Goldfarb
20-01-2017

I love the software – nice and clean – the categories was a must have that your competitors are lacking.

 
Widgets to Compare Monthly Spending in Active Categories
17-02-2017

Huzzah! I can add widgets now and already made one to compare my monthly spending in my active categories to my budget. Excellent. That tool is one of my favorite features in a personal finance product.

 
Shirley Hou
CountAbout was Perfect
15-03-2017

I was looking for finance software to use as treasurer of the parent-teacher association at my child's school. CountAbout was perfect - it had all the register features and download capabilities that I was familiar with from desktop Quicken, but it has the advantage of being in the cloud so I can use it from any computer.

 
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Steve P.
22-09-2017

My search for a cloud-based alternative to Quicken is over! Very easy to transfer my Quicken data and customize my account. Thank you CountAbout!

 
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Jim Powell
17-03-2018

Vastly superior to the execrable Quicken, which caused me to have to choose a new bank password every time I used it. CA is fast, simple, and all you need unless you have a complicated investment portfolio. Its almost fun!

 
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Jeffrey Wilk
02-04-2018

Great product and great customer service. Thanks!

 
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Nancy
10-08-2018

I love CountAbout! I have hated Quicken for years, but didn't have an alternative. Now I do! I love that the cost is only $9.99 per year for the basic service (which is all I need). You can upgrade for more features, if you need them. But for personal use, the basic plan is just fine. When I found CountAbout, I gleefully gave Quicken the boot and I haven't looked back or missed it at all. Bye bye Quicken!!!

 
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Dana Linder
29-03-2019

This is an incredibly well thought out program.

It imports QIF files perfectly. I tried a number that failed miserably.

It has a function that emails reminders about scheduled transactions. That is an extremely useful function that I hadn't seen anywhere.

Tech support is second to none. All my questions were answered in detail within hours (sometimes minutes).

The companion phone app is very simple. You can browse, search, enter transactions and see scheduled transaction. That's really all you need on the phone.

It's one failing for me is that I have a transaction that I have a transaction that occurs on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and it's not possible to set that up. It's easy enough for me to change the date of next transaction when I enter the current one.

I am extremely impressed with the company. The trial is free for 15 days. You have nothing to lose.

 
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Keith Hurst
22-05-2020

I've been trying to ditch Quicken for years, finally a worthy replacement, but it's so much more, so clean and intuitively designed. I was really surprised and delighted to find a full featured iphone app that meets all my needs.

 
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Amanda Sherlock
25-08-2020

I started using Quicken in 1987, before I had my own PC. I continued using it for years, frustrated by the frequent breaks in the synchronization. Finally I took the leap and used Mint for a year or two. Free software is worth as much as I pay for. Finally, in 2019 I found Countabout. The synchronization is great and I am happy to have a product that's easy to use and reliable. The customer support is excellent and very responsive to my questions.
There aren't as many bells and whistles as Quicken but the simplicity outweighs the complications.

 

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CountAbout® is an easy-to-use online personal finance application that imports data from Quicken and Mint and automatically downloads data from banking, credit card, and retirement accounts. With no software to install, we’re anywhere you have an Internet connection. Our platform is stable, secure, and totally private. Our dedicated customer service team is friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to respond.

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