Want to save more money each month? Check out these top budgeting apps that help you track spending, set financial goals, and understand your finances.
You’ve worked hard for your money. Want to know one of the best ways to put more cash in your wallet? Become a budgeting rock star.
According to research from Rutgers University, having a budget helps you:
Budgeting can be complicated, especially if you have multiple streams of income, varying expenses, and different bank accounts. Thankfully, there are lots of budget apps to save money. They can help you keep track of your finances and organize your spending and saving.
Check out the following best free budgeting apps to make budgeting a breeze.
Many have called Mint the best budget app for iPhone and Android because it’s free, it’s easy to manage multiple financial accounts, and you get a clear view of your finances on any device. You can link all your bank accounts, as well as investment accounts, to the app to see how much your wealth is worth.
Budgeting and spending are divided into categories so you can see exactly where your funds are going and if you’re staying on track. Maybe it’s time to eat out a little less, cook at home a little more, and watch your savings grow, grow, grow.
Mint also sends you a free credit profile and monitoring updates. There’s nothing like getting an alert that you’ve jumped up a few credit points to keep that financial momentum going.
If you want to manage your money with your honey, check out Zeta Money Manager. It’s one of the top budgeting apps for couples since it shows the financial views of each individual linked to the account, as well as your shared assets.
Spending is also divided into categories, so you can see a percentage of what categories your spending is going toward. No more arguing about how your spending is playing out. Just show your partner your phone screen, and it’s all right there.
The app also enables each user to message the other regarding specific transactions, as well as manage bills together and split specific purchases. The app sends free bill reminders so you can stay on top of what you owe.
Plus, you can set financial goals in the app together and track specific objectives. We say saving together as a couple is downright sexy.
Sometimes what you think you have available to spend isn’t what you actually have, since you may have upcoming bills and necessities to purchase. No worries with PocketGuard. It’s a free budgeting app that does that math for you. PocketGuard takes into account upcoming bills, so you can see the amount of spendable cash you have available.
Get a simple view of what categories you typically spend in. If you have debt you want to pay off, use PocketGuard to create a custom plan so you can kiss that debt goodbye. You can organize your debts to pay off the ones with the highest interest first, or choose a different strategy that works for you.
With PocketGuard, you can link all your financial accounts – bank, investment, loans, and credit cards – and see the balance of each one in a single screen. The app will also alert you if you can negotiate better rates on various bills, so you can save even more.
First, a disclaimer: You Need a Budget, or YNAB for short, starts out free for 34 days, then turns into a paid app for $11.99/month or $84/year. This app may be worth a try, though, if you want access to extensive financial education and unlimited one-on-one personalized customer support.
YNAB provides users with free educational classes for financial strategies, with more than 100 free live online workshops every week. The app is sort of like having access to budgeting school, plus your own personal budgeting advisor on-call when you need them.
YNAB also enables users to share financial information with a partner through the app, so you can work on budgeting together. If you’re new to budgeting or want to make an investment in your financial future, YNAB can help you stay accountable.
Yep, we’re saying it: pie charts can be awesome, especially when they show you where your money is going and how you can optimize your spending to achieve your goals. Whether you want to save for a vacation or a home, know what you’re spending so you can take control.
