Sometimes you intellectually understand how to create and follow a budget, but you have a hard time changing your habits to reach your goals. Shifting your spending habits can take time and patience with yourself. If you struggle to stick to a budget, one of these four apps could be the answer you need.
You Need a Budget
Price: $5 per month or $50 per year
Operating system: Android and iOS
A lot of people find it hard to follow budgets because they lose track of where small amounts of money go. You Need a Budget makes it easy to see how you spend your money by giving every dollar a category. Even if you spend $5 at your neighborhood cafe, the app will want to know what category that money falls into. It doesn’t take long to see that small amounts of cash can lead to big expenses.
You Need a Budget also offers free classes on subjects such as:
- Aggressive debt pay-down strategies
- Breaking the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle
- How credit cards affect your budget
Take advantage of these classes. They can teach you a lot about controlling your money and reducing debt.
mvelopes
Price: Free to download, but in-app purchases cost between $0.99 and $99.99
Operating system: Android and iOS
Like most budgeting apps, mvelopes will help you track your expenses. It will even create useful graphics that make your spending easy to understand. One of the best things about mvelopes, though, is that you can use the app to learn from financial coaches.
Financial coaching teaches you how to do a lot more than create a budget. It prepares you to save for retirement, eliminate debt quickly, increase your savings, and earn more money.
Since mvelopes is a highly visual app, you’ll need a smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. The phone’s large AMOLED screen and contoured dual edge display will make it easier for you to learn essential budgeting skills.
Wally
Price: Free
Operating system: Android and iOS
If you’re like most people, you use several credit cards, bank accounts, and payment services like PayPal. Keeping your money in so many places can make it difficult for you to understand exactly how much you have. You practically need a degree in accounting to follow a tight budget.
Or you could just get Wally, an app that connects all of your accounts so that you get a complete view of your finances. Wally will show you how much money you have in your savings and checking accounts, how much you owe your credit card provider, and how much money you earn at work.
The Wally team plans to add even more features in the near future. Some of those features may cost money, but the app is free for now.
Spendee
Price: Free to download, but in-app purchases cost from $0.99 to $14.99 per item
Operating system: Android and iOS
If you share money with your spouse or children, then you need a budgeting app that can synchronize the spending activities of several people at once. Spendee has a real-time sync feature that communicates with all of your devices. When your spouse spends money at the grocery store, you get updated information immediately.
Spendee also has multiple wallets that make it easy to organize your money. Instead of throwing every dollar into the same pile, you can designate a certain number of dollars for expenses such as entertainment, your mortgage, and utilities.
Spendee’s core features come with the free version, but you’ll need to upgrade if you want to access services like shared wallets.
Making a budget isn’t that hard as long as you’re willing to sit down and decide how you want to spend your money. Following a budget, however, is much harder than making a plan. With these apps on your side, you can improve the likelihood that you will stick to your new budget and build a secure financial future.
