FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

What is MySpendingPlanTM? MySpendingPlanTM is free secure online personal finance budgeting software and tools that help you manage your spending to save money, reduce debt and reach your financial goals.  Our tools also let you create shopping lists (and buy the items) online, set bills due and task reminder email alerts and create savings goals you can track.  Our reporting feature also allows you to produce helpful charts and graphs.  MySpendingPlanTM can be used to plan an your entire household budget, or just a specific item, like wedding planning, vacations or a home improvement project. Our predictive Auto-Assign BudgetTM technology will even recommend an ongoing budget by examining your past and present spending habits and matching them with your income.  And the Bill & Account Analyzer will make savings recommendations you can act on. Our Save More section lets you print grocery coupons online, get cash back on your next home purchase or home sale, find free stuff, and get discounts and deals on many of the things you buy everyday. Our Live Smart section contains lots of helpful tips and articles written by our editorial staff on a variety of subjects, from how to survive a layoff, to budgeting for the arrival of a new baby.   And our Member Forum (coming soon) is a place where you can swap tips and ideas with other people who have similar needs. What can I use MySpendingPlanTM for? MySpendingPlanTM can be used to manage your home budgets and special activities such as buying, selling or building a home, vacation planning, home remodeling, and much more!  You can also use our software to manage the budget, shopping and tasks for other organizations and groups you involved with, like a charity, social club, church group or a child's sports team. Do I have to download or install any software to use MySpendingPlanTM? None at all, except for the latest internet browser, of course (but you already have that under control, or else you would not be reading this!).  The website is currently optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 (and later versions), but will work with other browsers as well.  Make sure that you keep up on patches and security updates for whichever internet browser you are using.  Some of our partners may have a download to offer you to help you print coupons, save money, etc., but our personal budget software is completely accessible online and requires no special downloads or installations. What does "Beta" mean? MySpendingPlanTM is a very robust set of tools to help you manage your budgets and personal planning and is fully functional for your needs.  Our development team is using some of the latest available Web technologies to bring you the software, so we have chosen to launch the site in a "beta version" to get your feedback.  If you detect a software bug or have a suggestion, please email us at support@myspendingplan.com or post an item in our Member Forum (coming soon).  Why is MySpendingPlanTM special? MySpendingPlanTM is budgeting software that presents a modern version of the tried and true "envelope system" to fit today's lifestyle and home budgets.  With our budgeting software, you can create virtual envelopes for each of your budget items and monitor their balances in real time.  As a result, you make truly informed financial decisions before you spend your money, helping you reach your personal finance goals.  What's more you can connect these budgets you create to your shopping, bills and tasks, making all those projects in life even easier to manage. How long does it take to set up my budget? You can have a basic budget up and running on MySpendingPlanTM in as little as 10 minutes, using our simple wizard.  Of course you can easily modify it as you go along, since your needs develop and circumstances change.  We also have some templates that can get you started quickly on a household budget or on a specific task, like wedding planning or a vacation budget. How is this different than Quicken or Microsoft Money? Both those applications are very useful examples of personal finance software for tracking your finances and forming a picture of your net worth and tracking investments.  But we've found that many people find them too cumbersome for monthly and ongoing personal budgeting needs.  That’s why we designed MySpendingPlanTM to easily manage your entire budget, or just a specific task, like a wedding or home improvement project.  And unlike most other personal finance software packages, MySpendingPlanTM is FREE to use.  Finally, since our personal budgeting software is totally internet-based, you can safely use it anywhere you can access the internet. Why is it easy to use MySpendingPlanTM? We have taken advantage of many of the latest and greatest internet technologies to bring you MySpendingPlanTM.  When you sign up and start exploring our tools, you will see the application of the latest web development technologies, like Ajax programming and Microsoft's Web Parts, among others, that are slowly starting to appear on more and more of the better websites.  What this means for you is online software that is easier to use, more customizable and works faster, duplicating the results you are used to when using software applications that are installed on your computer's hard drive.  And less worrying about system crashes and constant updates and patches. How is MySpendingPlanTM free software? For the same reason it is free to use Google or MSN: advertising.  We carefully select advertising partners that match our mission: helping you manage your personal finances, reduce debt, stay on budget and save you money on the things you buy everyday.  Comparable personal finance software can cost you as much as $90 (sometimes annually!), but we can bring you a robust, yet simple to use, set of tools for free by partnering with reputable merchants and ad partners. Do you plan to offer more services and features in the future? While we think you will find our current set of tools quite robust for your personal budgeting and planning needs, MySpendingPlanTM constantly keeps improving and we will work our hardest to make sure that all your data transitions easily into any new features we incorporate.  Currently, we are working on account aggregation and transaction lookup and even more user customization, among other exciting new features.  We weigh any new plans carefully and will never introduce a new feature that makes our tools too difficult or cumbersome to use.  If you have a suggestion on something new you'd like to see on MySpendingPlanTM, drop us a line and we'll see what we can do! Is MySpendingPlanTM safe and secure to use? Yes it is.  At MySpendingPlanTM we use secure servers (SSL Technology via GeoTrust) so that your information is protected.  We also value your privacy and your information is never shared with another party without your permission.  Our software does not ask you to enter account numbers or other account identifying information like social security numbers.  If a future feature does require this information to allow you to use it, you will be made clearly aware of this and still be protected by our secure server technology.  Please note that if you decide to take advantage of an offer or conduct a purchase with one of our advertising or merchant partners, you will want to review their privacy and security policies before providing any such sensitive information.  We are a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program.  We are also a member in good standing of the Better Business Bureau and participate in the BBBOnLine Reliability Program. How can I be sure my data is private? MySpendingPlanTM will never divulge or sell your personal information to a third-party without your express consent as reflected by our Privacy Policy.  You can easily unsubscribe from our newsletter and special offers, or cancel your free membership.  If you take advantage of any offers from any of our advertising partners or merchant partners, please note that their privacy and security policies will apply to any information you give them those cases, so be sure to review them.  Feel free to review our Privacy Policy for more details.  We are a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program.  We are also a member in good standing of the Better Business Bureau and participate in the BBBOnLine Reliability Program.