Top 3 Budgeting Applications for Everyone
Surely, none of us really likes it to live from paycheck to paycheck and being in the situation when you have to save each cent. However, strange as it may seem, budgeting is not really about this; rather, it is more about being wise and considerate with your income and expenses and having perfect balance between the two. Here are three most popular and effective tools that might help you to deal with your finances in a more efficient way.
1. Mint
- OS: iOS, Android, Windows
- Free of charge
Mint provides great opportunity to keep an eye on all your expenditures as well as set short-term and long-term goals, which is also a very useful feature for many.
It is linked to your accounts and thus allows all the recent transactions to be overviewed as soon as they take place. Any time you can have a look at the state of your finances in real time.
Besides, the application allows summing up you monthly budget and get your expenses clear and sorted out. You can divide the expenses chart in different categories which will help in drawing a more precise picture - where you spend more and which parts can actually be efficiently readjusted.
The application is also very convenient for those who have more than one or two income sources. This means that all investments and credit cards transactions are also included as well as other such things. It allows keeping you financial information all in one place.
One of the most helpful features for those who are not used do being frugal and find it hard to discipline themselves on the early stages, the application offers a low-budget alert feature that sends e-mails or texts when you cross some line. Besides, it is also possible to set limitations to expenditures in some categories - this might be pretty helpful for individuals with the tendency to emotional shopping.
All in all the application is easy to use, its interface is user-friendly and very intuitive; the variety of graphs and charts makes the information well-represented and clear.
2. GoodBudget
- OS: iOS, Android, Windows
- Free of charge
This application used to be EEBA, or the Easy Envelope Budget Aid, that is now transformed into GoodBudget. It is a very useful application for individuals who have strongly decided to take better control of their income and especially expenses.
The application uses a pretty Envelope system that allows you keeping an eye on you current expenses weekly, biweekly or monthly, and also provides and option of putting away small cash amounts with each income for saving - which is very naïve but pretty effective at the same time, if you try it.
You can create various types of Envelopes such as groceries and going-out expenses as well as travel and utilities, and even make smaller ones like clothes and shoes, if you feel like it.
GoodBudget is really great for freelancers and other individuals who do not have any actual fixed salary and gets irregular income.
Free version of the application allows creating up to ten envelopes and those who will find the app useful and convenient are able to upgrade it to a paid version and create more envelopes as well as have an option of using the software on several devices simultaneously.3.You Need a Budget
- OS: iOS, Android, Windows
- Free of charge
You Need a Budget will do much more than just help you create a better budget. It will leave you feeling empowered about your finances, and it will help you keep all your spending organized.
With the help of You Need a Budget you can easily get your expenditures in order. It is an easy to handle application that helps a person to get various financial aspects in order.
One of the features that actually differs this very app from its rivals is that instead of using your present income to plan your budget, it offers the previous months' one. This definitely leads to a much more disciplined approach than the one you have probably had before.
Besides, there is also an option of planning irregular expenses beforehand, especially if you know that they are expected.
YNAB is a very popular soft especially among mobile users as it is pretty powerful and provide a broad range of options. They also offer synchronization with your desktop computer so that you could have your financial information at hand whenever and wherever it is more convenient to you.
