Apps have made nearly every personal financial decision easier and portable. Developers have stepped up, and provided a large number of options for managing money. Budgeting money and buying stocks are now as simple as ordering a pizza. While there is no fail-safe to make a person save, help is out there. Whether it is basic budgeting, shopping help or advanced account monitors, there is an app that will help.
Here are five of the best financial apps that help with budgeting and saving:
Mint:
Mint is one of the most robust personal financial apps available. It allows one to link credit cards and bank accounts, and then provides an overview of all money flow. It is an app designed for people with specific goals in mind. Mint can set budgets for specific spending limits and saving goals. By monitoring accounts, it can then send out email notifications based on those limits and goals.
Spendee:
Spendee is an app that is solely focused in expense tracking. This is important because one must know where money goes before it can be saved. Spendee uses a sleek visual interface to make expenses easy to enter and review. It provides easy to read graphs and icons that give it a lower learning curve than many other personal financial apps, and users will find themselves reviewing expenses in no time. Unlike Mint, it requires no account links and is more suited toward anyone hesitant to save sensitive banking data.
Spendee is an app that is solely focused in expense tracking. This is important because one must know where money goes before it can be saved. Spendee uses a sleek visual interface to make expenses easy to enter and review. It provides easy to read graphs and icons that give it a lower learning curve than many other personal financial apps, and users will find themselves reviewing expenses in no time. Unlike Mint, it requires no account links and is more suited toward anyone hesitant to save sensitive banking data.
BUDGT:
Just like the name suggests, BUDGT focuses on budgets. It does not require any personal banking information. BUDGT allows people to draw up a simple, calendar based budget and review it via pie chart. Budgets can be setup for as short as a day or as long as a decade. This tool is ideal for anyone new to budgeting and will make saving money a snap.
Just like the name suggests, BUDGT focuses on budgets. It does not require any personal banking information. BUDGT allows people to draw up a simple, calendar based budget and review it via pie chart. Budgets can be setup for as short as a day or as long as a decade. This tool is ideal for anyone new to budgeting and will make saving money a snap.
Groupon:
Saving money goes beyond just monitoring bank accounts. The Groupon app shows deals in over 500 cities around the world. Groupon discounts allow shoppers to leverage bulk buying discounts on an individual basis. Shopping can be done by category, like food or electronics, and there is a large variety available. Deals can also be sorted by distance via GPS and expiration time.
Saving money goes beyond just monitoring bank accounts. The Groupon app shows deals in over 500 cities around the world. Groupon discounts allow shoppers to leverage bulk buying discounts on an individual basis. Shopping can be done by category, like food or electronics, and there is a large variety available. Deals can also be sorted by distance via GPS and expiration time.
I Love Free Things:
There is no better way to save money than to stop spending it. The I Love Free Things app lets users browse a variety of free local offerings. The listings are for both goods and services. While this app does not allow browsing by category, it does allow users to add tag listings as a favorite for later review. It also provides a section for customer comments, so that shoppers can feedback on their experience with a particular vendor.
There is no better way to save money than to stop spending it. The I Love Free Things app lets users browse a variety of free local offerings. The listings are for both goods and services. While this app does not allow browsing by category, it does allow users to add tag listings as a favorite for later review. It also provides a section for customer comments, so that shoppers can feedback on their experience with a particular vendor.
Another one I love is iBotta – it’s for groceries but it links up to your PayPal account and pays you rebates that way. It’s great for if you forget to clip coupons or just run out to the store to grab something. The offerings are still a little limited, but I think if it catches on, it’ll expand. I always seem to be able to find basic necessities – shampoo, toilet paper, etc. – on it, as well as a strange variety of other things.