Clark Howard

Honeydue Review: 5 Things To Know About the Budgeting Tool

If you're thinking about downloading a budgeting app, Honeydue is one option to consider

In this article, I’ll take a close look at five things to know about Honeydue.

I’ve set up a budget on Honeydue, checked out what resources it offers and looked at other budgeting tools to see how it compares.

5 Things To Know About Honeydue

Watching your spending and meeting financial goals can be a challenge for anyone but especially if you budget with a partner. While you can set up a budget on your own, there are several free budgeting apps and websites that can help make it easier to budget with a partner. Honeydue is one to consider.

You can download the Honeydue app for iPhone or Android to begin. You will have to download the app as you can't access Honeydue any other way. Fortunately, the app is free to download and use.

If you’re thinking about downloading the Honeydue app, here are five things to know:

Below, you’ll find detailed information on Honeydue including how to start budgeting with a partner for free and what to expect once you’ve created an account.

What Is Honeydue?

According to its website, Honeydue is a software company that's based in San Francisco. The company developed a personal finance app that offers a simple way for couples to manage money together. If you're managing your money with another person, Honeydue can help keep transactions and budgets organized while making it easier to communicate with your partner about finances.

Honeydue stands apart from competitors Mint, Personal Capital, YNAB, PocketGuard and Mvelopes in that it allows users to choose what their partners can see and communicate about finances in a simple way.

You can link your bank accounts to the app to track and talk about your transactions with your partner. You’ll see recent transactions in the “Activity” tab that you can comment on and react to. You can click the “Chat” tab to send messages to your partner.

Within the app, you and your partner can both check current balances, set a spending limit on budget categories, get reminders about upcoming bills and more. What's great about Honeydue is that it can help create transparency between you and your partner when it comes to finances. Still, if you have separate individual accounts, you can choose what your partner does and doesn't see.

How Does Honeydue Work?

Honeydue works by having you link all of your checking accounts in addition to your credit cards, savings account(s), investments and loans. You can also manually enter and track a cash budget. According to the Honeydue website, your data is securely encrypted in 256 bits, both in transit and in storage. The app also requires multi-factor authentication to further protect your account.

In addition to linking your accounts, Honeydue will prompt you to add bill reminders for common bills such as rent, phone and electricity. Then, you’ll be able to invite your partner to join you on the app and begin setting up your budget.

Getting Started

To get started, download the Honeydue app for iPhone or Android. You can visit the website to see some screenshots and highlighted features, but you will have to download the app in order to create an account and begin. I downloaded the iPhone app to log in and set up my budget when I tried out Honeydue with my partner.

To create your account, you’ll need to enter your name and email address and create a password. Once you’ve logged in, you can customize your profile to add a photo and a phone number for two-factor authentication.

After you set up your account, you'll be able to invite your partner to the app via email or text message. They'll receive a link to download the app and join you. Even before they accept, you can begin linking your banking accounts to track your transactions and create a budget.

You can link checking and credit card accounts from popular banks as well as loan and investment accounts. You add each account by selecting your financial institution and logging in with your username and password. Or you can add an offline account to track cash spending or to enter transactions manually.

Once you’ve linked your accounts, you’ll be able to see them in the “Balances” tab.

According to the website, you're in control over what you share with your partner. Once you connect a bank account, you'll be able to choose whether your partner can see both balances and transactions, balances only or nothing at all from that particular account.

How To Set Up Your Budget

Once you've created an account, linked your bank accounts and invited your partner, you'll be ready to set up your budget. Click "More" and "Budget" to begin.

In this tab, you can see a breakdown of your spending and earnings by month and/or by account. Below the graphs, you can see individual spending categories such as “Home & Utilities” and “Food & Drink.” Click on any of these categories to add a monthly spending limit.

Once you’ve entered the monthly spending limit, you choose when to receive a notification if you reach a certain percentage of the limit. For example, I can set a monthly spending limit of $150 for entertainment and request a notification once I’ve spent 75% of that amount for the month.

While Honeydue makes it easy to communicate with your partner about expenses throughout the month in the app, it's important to sit down with your partner in person and set up your budget together. Dedicate some time to look at your monthly bills, review spending categories and decide on spending limits when you first link your accounts. This is a great way to set yourself up for success.

How To Stick to Your Budget

Once you've talked with your partner, linked your accounts and set up a budget, the hard part is over. Helping you and your partner clearly communicate about finances is where Honeydue excels.

If you’ve linked your bank accounts, Honeydue will automatically import and categorize transactions throughout the month. It’s important to check your budget categories and transactions regularly to ensure there are no mistakes. If a transaction is categorized incorrectly, you can move it so that it more accurately reflects your budget.

Click on any specific transaction from the “Budget” tab and click “Change” next to the budget category. From there, you can choose a new category or assign it to multiple categories. You can also click “Split Expense” to split the payment with your partner.

Under the "More" tab, you can also click on "Bills" to manually enter and track bills. You can add a bill's name, the amount due, the type of bill it is (rent, subscription, utilities, credit card, loan or other), how often it repeats and when it's next due. Then, you can choose who should be reminded about the bill (you, your partner or both) and when you'd like the notification sent (up to a week before).

Sticking to your budget will probably be a bit easier if you make sure your transactions are correctly categorized and set up reminders for upcoming bills.

The homepage of the app also highlights recent financial activity that you can see, react to and comment on.

As you and your partner follow your new budget throughout the month, you can also communicate about discrepancies, adjustments and other financial matters in the "Chat" tab.

How Does Honeydue Compare?

Compared to other personal finance apps I’ve tried, I found Honeydue to be one of the best for budgeting with a partner. The initial setup isn’t as much of a pain as it was with some competitor apps; I do recommend that you set it up in person with your partner. Once you’ve set it up, the app makes it easy to organize transactions, set spending limits and communicate about finances.

Still, Honeydue is far from the only personal budgeting tool available. If you've been searching for the best budgeting tools, you've probably also come across Mint, Personal Capital, YNAB, PocketGuard and Mvelopes.

Here’s a quick rundown of the features available with each of these budgeting tools:

 Mint.comPersonal CapitalYNABPocketGuardMvelopesHoneydue
Best forTracking expensesInvestmentsBudgetingAvoiding overspendingHands-on budgetingBudgeting with a Partner
Free to useYesYesNoYesNoYes
Ad-supportedYesYesNoYesNoNo
Track spendingYesYesYesYesYesYes
Monthly budget plannerYesYesYesYesYesYes
Bill payment alertsYesYesNoYesNoYes
Free credit scoreYesNoNoNoNoNo
Retirement plannerNoYesNoNoNoNo
Investment trackingYesYesNoNoNoNo

As you can see, all six budgeting apps offer a variety of different features that can help you track your spending to build a practical budget. But each specializes in different areas of your finances.

Money expert Clark Howard is a fan of Mint and says it's great for tracking your expenses. If you're budgeting solo, Mint is a great free budgeting app to try first.

If you’re mostly focused on watching your investments or planning for retirement, Personal Capital will likely be a better budgeting tool for you.

PocketGuard automatically sets up a budget for you and categorizes your transactions in real time. If you’re budgeting on your own and need these automated features to avoid overspending, PocketGuard may be a great choice for you.

YNAB and Mvelopes are the only budgeting apps on the list that aren't free, and they may be worth paying for if you're an organized person who's ready to commit to a strict budget. However, if you're looking for a free budgeting app to manage your finances with a partner, Honeydue is by far the best choice on this list.

How To Get the Most Out of Honeydue

If you and your partner are signing up for Honeydue, there are a few ways that you can set yourselves up for success. Here are five tips to keep in mind while using the budgeting app:

  1. Link as many accounts as possible. This is the best way for you to take control of all your available money as well as tackle all of your outstanding debts. You'll have to provide your usernames and passwords for this, but Honeydue doesn't store your banking credentials. Instead, it uses an encrypted system to protect your data.
  2. Set up your budget with your partner and be realistic. When you first download the Honeydue app, create an account and invite your partner, sit down together in-person first to set up your budget. Link your accounts, look at your monthly income and bills and set spending limits for each budget category upfront. Starting on the same page is crucial when budgeting as a couple.
  3. Track cash spending from the app. If you budget with cash, you can track your transactions manually in the Honeydue app. In the "Balances" tab, you can click "Add" in the top-right corner. Then, you can toggle between "Connect Bank Accounts" and "Add Account Manually" to create a cash budget.
  4. Check your transactions and budget daily. Every time you make a purchase (cash or card), make sure it's reflected correctly in your budget. You can change a transaction's assigned category or split it between multiple categories to get an accurate picture of your spending.
  5. Make a plan for savings. Honeydue is focused on helping you and your partner to clearly communicate about your finances. While it highlights spending, earnings and transfers, there isn't an intuitive way to establish a savings category. Instead, I recommend treating your savings like a bill and having the app remind both you and your partner to contribute to your mutual savings.

Final Thoughts: Pros and Cons

Budgeting is essential if you're serious about reaching your financial goals, and Honeydue provides everything you and your partner need to begin. After trying out Honeydue myself, here are the biggest benefits and drawbacks that I've found.

Compared to other budgeting tools such as Mint, Personal Captial, YNAB, PocketGuard and Mvelopes, Honeydue stands out for its couples-focused approach. The initial setup is relatively simple compared to other apps, but you will have to take more ownership when it comes to setting up your budget and planning for expenses and savings with your partner.

After I linked my accounts, set up my budget and invited my partner, Honeydue wasn't hard to use. Still, any budgeting app comes with a learning curve. If you already have a free budgeting app or a classic spreadsheet/pen and paper budget that's working for you and your partner, there's no real reason to switch to Honeydue. However, if you have trouble communicating with your partner about finances, Honeydue is a great solution to consider.

My partner and I use a simple spreadsheet on Google Sheets that works well for us. After trying out Honeydue, we decided we're going to stick to our spreadsheet. We have our income and set expenses written out for each month, and we decide together how we'll spend the money in our joint account. We budget our individual accounts separately. Our process works better for us than Honeydue did, but if you don't already have an established budgeting method, I would recommend Honeydue as it helps create a space for financial transparency and communication between partners.

Do you use Honeydue or another personal finance tool to stay on budget with your partner? Tell us about it in the comments below!

More Clark.com Content on Budgeting: 

The post Honeydue Review: 5 Things To Know About the Budgeting Tool appeared first on Clark Howard.