EveryDollar Review

Are you looking to try out a new budget app? You have several options to choose from depending on your requirements.

In this article, we will explore EveryDollar, an app that makes it easy for users to set goals and track their expenses.

What Is EveryDollar?

EveryDollar is a budgeting app from Dave Ramsey Solutions available in Canada and the U.S., offering a free and paid version to its users.

Dave Ramsey, the founder of Dave Ramsey Solutions, is a personal finance personality and a host of the podcast and radio show called The Dave Ramsey Show.

EveryDollar claims that you can use it to create a budget in less than ten minutes and follow Dave Ramsey’s zero-based budgeting.

How Does EveryDollar Work?

According to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University plan, effective budgeting involves giving every dollar a job.

When starting with EveryDollar, you need to enter your monthly income, and then the app can give you a customizable template to budget your monthly expenses.

EveryDollar is generally a free budgeting app with an option for a paid version that is part of the Ramsey Plus bundle.

What Is Zero-Based Budgeting?

EveryDollar uses zero-based budgeting, which “gives every dollar a job,” like in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University plan.

Before spending any money, the amount you intend to use at that moment is assigned to a specific saving or expense account.

Zero-based budgeting forces you to plan ahead of time to avoid impulse purchases and spending money you don’t have.

How To Sign Up For EveryDollar

Signing up on EveryDollar is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is visit the EveryDollar homepage and click the “Sign up – it’s free” button.

You are directed to a short signup form requesting your name, email address, country of residence, and ZIP code.

Additionally:

You will need to create a unique and safe password. Once you fill in all the required information, click “Create my Account” to get a verification email.

After verifying your email, you are taken to a landing page with a “Take me to my budget” box which you click on to get started.

How To Start Using EveryDollar

When using EveryDollar for the first time, you are taken to a goals page. Some examples of goals you may choose from include:

• Pay off debt
• Travel
• Save for home
• Retirement
• Pay for kid’s college
• Stop living paycheck to paycheck

You can select as many goals as possible, and the questions you will receive include:

• Do you have kids or pets?
• Do you own or rent your home?
• Do you have a car?
• Are you married?

In your next step, you will need to enter the following details:

Monthly Income

There is a default space for two sources of income for each person. However, you can add as much as you need.

Basic Expenses

After filling in your monthly income sources, the site takes you to another section with the actual budget, where you will enter your basic expenses.

The boxes will have default names such as monthly electricity costs, but you can edit them to your desire.

Transportation Costs

This section has two default boxes, gasoline, and maintenance; however, you can add more boxes for expenses such as insurance.

Food Costs

The app will request information on what you spend on groceries and all your restaurant meals.

Personal Expenses

Every person has certain personal expenses that may be similar or distinct to other peoples’. Personal expenses include items such as:

• Cell Phone costs
• Clothing and hair expenses
• Subscriptions
• Fun money

This is also the ideal section for filling all miscellaneous expenses not covered anywhere else.

Insurance Expenses

It includes insurance expenses from health, auto, life, homeowner, fire, and more.

However:

Some employers take out health insurance costs pre-tax; therefore, you can skip the expense but ensure it is figured out in your net income.

The same applies to homeowners insurance which could be escrowed within your mortgage payment.

Lifestyle Expenses

Every individual choice of lifestyle has entertainment, pet care, and child care expenses, among other costs.

You may also include extracurricular activities such as going out to eat or going on vacation.

Health

People have different ways of taking care of their bodies to remain healthy. This section is for expenses such as gym memberships, vitamin expenses, and more.

You can also input expenses for doctor, dentist, and other health care professional’s visits. However, if you have a Health Savings Account (HSA) to cover these costs, you can skip the section.

Giving Budget

There are two default spaces in this section, i.e., Charity and Church. You can modify them, add more, or reduce the boxes.

Savings

Do you have any savings habits? EveryDollar challenges users to use a default Emergency Fund box or edit their own savings goals.

Debts

The app also helps you keep track of your debts by entering the name of each debtor and the required monthly payment.

The system informs you how much your debts are taking from you in monthly installments. It also lets you know whether you are left with any money after payment.

EveryDollar Plans

EveryDollar offers users two plans which include:

1. Free Version

It comes with features such as:

• Creating unlimited EveryDollar budgets
• Free access to the app from the phone
• Ability to gradually pay off debts using Dave Ramsey’s snowball method

The free version of EveryDollar is excellent for starters; however, you need to fill in all your expenses manually.

2. Plus Plan

The Plus version goes for $99 annually, which is an average of $8.25 per month. You enjoy the benefits of the free version plus auto-downloading of transactions from your bank for this price.

Is My Money Safe With EveryDollar?

And if you are wondering:

How safe is my money and information on EveryDollar? First of all, there is no money required to start using EveryDollar unless when purchasing the Plus version.

Here is the catch:

Dave Ramsey does not believe in using credit cards, and therefore, the payment option only allows the use of debit cards.

Additionally, EveryDollar uses excellent data encryption techniques with a multi-factor authentication system in place.

It also has a data center that is occupied by professionals all the time to ensure the physical security of all the data on EveryDollar’s servers.

EveryDollar Vs. Mint

EveryDollar (3.8)	Mint (4.5)
Free and paid version	Free
Clutter-free (no ads)	Contains advertisements
No viewing or tracking investments	View and track your investments

Conclusion

If you are looking for a way to put a leash on and control your spending, EveryDollar would be an ideal choice.

It is an excellent standalone budgeting app that uses a zero-based budgeting method.

The only downfall to EveryDollar is that you need to enter most of your transactions manually and may not be the best solution if you are looking for automation.