Money is undeniably a very important resource to have which is why trying to strike a balance between saving and spending is important to consider. Enter: budgeting. It’s a great way to keep track of your money—how much you’re allowed to spend in a given amount of time and how much you’re going to set aside for future use or emergencies. It’s also a habit that really goes a long way.
There are plenty of ways of budgeting. Whether it be keeping a simple ledger or writing it down on a piece of paper. However, if you find that you’re having troubles keeping track of it, forgetting to update, or finding it difficult to organise, then perhaps it's time to settle for an app that can help you manage your money. To help with that, here’s a list of the best apps you can use for budgeting.
Money Manager Expense & Budget
photo from: https://realbyteapps.com/
price: Free (Premium subscription available)
available on: Android, iOS
Realbyte’s Money Manager is a lot of people’s go-to app for expense tracking and budgeting. It’s easy to use with a simple and straightforward interface that shows data you need at a glance.
Transactions such as your income and expenses can easily be entered and viewed in four different modes: Daily, Calendar, Monthly, and Total. Meanwhile, if you need to write down something important, the app also offers a Note tab where you can easily log this in without needing to go back and forth with another app.
Income and expense statistics are presented with a pie graph and are viewable in Weekly, Monthly, Annual, and Period modes.
The budgeting feature allows you to allocate your money on various categories (food, shopping, etc.). It also helps you keep in track of how much your spending as opposed to how much you’re earning/saving.
It’s possible to keep track of different accounts with the app and a dedicated tab for that makes it easy to see everything in one place.
The app has a PC Manager function, making it possible to use the app on a PC’s web browser. In order to use this, the device with the app and the PC should be connected to the same WiFi. It’s a useful function to have especially since it makes it even more accessible.
You can export your transaction data to Excel for free.
With its bookmark function, you can easily enter your frequent expenses all at once.
You can include photos alongside your transaction.
The only downside to this app is that there are small ad banners that appear around the interface. While it’s not too intrusive, you’ll need to spend a bit of cash to get rid of them. Its paid version doesn’t only remove ads but also includes the PC Manager function and unlimited assets.
Money+ Cute Expense Tracker
photo from: https://www.appbrain.com
price: Free (Premium subscription available)
available: Android, iOS
As the name suggests, Money+ is an expense tracker with a cute but neat aesthetic. It’s easy to navigate and pleasing on the eyes, making budgeting and tracking less daunting and confusing.
Its multi-account support function allows you to keep track of various accounts in one page. It’s also grouped together based on how you enter your account details. Bank accounts, credit cards, etc. are categorised making it
Lots of customisation options to make it even more personalised ranging from the app’s theme colours to various budgeting categories.
Your data is saved in your local data storage instead of online making it more secure.
A hundred cute icons are available to match your transaction types.
Its centralised budget settings make it easier to set your monthly, annual, or weekly budget on different categories.
There aren’t any ads littering the screen nor ones that pop up all of a sudden.
Basic free features are more than enough for the average user.
The app used to offer a one time purchase making all of its features available permanently (Google Drive backup, multiple ledgers, export as excel, etc.) however, they’ve changed their service model to become subscription based recently. Despite this, the app is still definitely worth a try as its free version offers a lot of useful features.
Fortune City
photo from: https://boardgamegeek.com
price: Free (In-App purchases/Premium subscription available)
available: Android, iOS
Unlike the two apps mentioned above which are straightforward expense and budget trackers, Fortune City on the other hand takes a slightly different approach by gamifying bookkeeping.
Apart from the usual record keeping functions, the app makes it a bit more interesting by adding a fun city simulation game into the mix.
Gives you an incentive to build a habit in money tracking and rewards it by allowing you to customise your city and grow it into an even bigger metropolis.
Allows you to keep track of your budget. Gives notifications for how much percentage is left for you to use in every category.
Features a cute companion that aids you in your city building apart from your usual bookkeeping.
Allows you to add friends who use the same app and introduces a friendly competition to see which one of you can develop the most prosperous city.
Pie charts as well as bar graphs make it easier to see your incomes and expenses at a glance.
Automatic cloud storage backup ensures you won’t lose your data.
With its game-centric approach, this app is especially good for those who want to get into the habit of tracking their transactions but find it hard to do so. However, it might not be the best option for those opting for a simple and straightforward interface. Additionally, in order to get access to other features (such as the budget management feature), then you’ll need to avail of their premium subscription.
Budgeting and money tracking with these apps will surely make it more manageable, accessible and less of a hassle to keep up with, especially if you’re someone who tends to misplace important papers. These apps are available for free with features that can make budgeting an even more fun habit to have.
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