A lot of emphases has been placed on budgeting, in fact, we have a series of article on this topic (you can check them out here). This shows the importance of budgeting to your financial freedom.

Also, we have also seen that accurate and effective budgeting does not come easily, you will need to put in a lot of time, effort and discipline. To help you better achieve your budgeting goals, the internet provides apps which are mostly free.

This article will focus on some of these apps for budgeting and other ways you can easily budgeting your finances.

• 8 Best Apps for Budgeting
• Do Budgeting Apps Really Work?
• How do you Start a Budget?
• How do you Start a Budget With no Money?

8 Best Apps for Budgeting

Many applications are designed for general personal budgeting, but each has something unique to offer. One app specializes in personal budgeting tools, while another offers bill tracking.

Read Also: Common Budgeting Mistakes People Make

One is unique in offering the ability to assign each dollar you have a job, creating a complete money management system. Another offers warnings when you are close to overspending.

The number of money management, personal finance, and budgeting apps is large, so it helps to know which ones are designed with the most users in mind while offering exclusive tools for those with unique needs. 

Find below a list of eight of the best apps for budgeting.

1. Mint

Mint is one of the oldest and best-known budgeting apps. Owned by Intuit, the same company that makes Quickbooks and TurboTax, Mint offers an array of features to help you track and manage your money from a giant list of banks, credit card issuers, brokerages, lenders, and other financial institutions.

It comes with a wide range of features, the most useful being its budgeting tools, which lie front and center when you log in. Mint automatically categorizes transactions from linked credit and debit cards and tracks them against a budget you can tweak and customize to your needs.

Get alerts when you go over budget, track spending by category, or look at your overall cash flow to get a well-rounded picture of where your money goes each month.

2. PocketGuard

As the name implies, PocketGuard can help guard you against spending too much. This budgeting app links to all of your financial accounts and helps you track your spending compared to your budget throughout the month.

This app is one of the easiest to set up and connect to your bank accounts. It tracks how much you’re earning, follows what you’re spending on recurring bills and everyday expenses, and tracks deposits into your savings account throughout a period.

This budgeting app even has a feature to help you track each individual bill and find opportunities to save. PocketGuard looks out for recurring bills from phone, TV, and Internet companies, for example, and helps you find a better deal on your monthly service costs. Not only does it help you track your budget, it helps you lower your spending.

3. You Need a Budget

You Need a Budget has a cult-like following of die-hard fans who lovingly refer to the app as YNAB. You Need a Budget has a unique approach compared to other budgeting apps. Rather than relying on traditional budgeting buckets, you build your budget based on your income, giving every dollar a job in your budget.

These jobs include everything from living expenses to debt payments, savings, or investments. Leaving no dollar unaccounted for forces you to think about every dollar you acquire and spend.

The app is great for individuals or couples working together on their budget. It offers both desktop and mobile interfaces, options to sync your bank accounts automatically or enter expenses manually, and includes debt payoff and goal tracking features to help motivate you to reach your money goals.

4. Wally

Wally isn’t the easiest app to navigate compared to some others on this list, but it works well for one thing: budgeting. This app helps you track your income and expenses while offering you a snapshot of your remaining budget to help you avoid overspending.

More popular with Millennials, this app is free to use and has both iPhone and Android versions (the Android version is called Wally+). One major benefit of Wally is its built-in support for virtually all foreign currencies, which makes it a better option for those who live outside of the United States.

5. Mvelopes

Cash budgeting lends itself well to envelope budgeting, a style of budgeting where you put cash in envelopes for different spending categories, and, when each envelope is empty, your budget for that category is all spent for the month. This is a bit more challenging with credit and debit cards, but Mvelopes makes it easy to follow cash style budgets in a digital budgeting world.

While it isn’t free, Mvelopes offers the ability to connect to unlimited financial accounts and put classic envelope budgeting to use to track your regular spending. With real-time budget matching, you will know whether you can buy that cappuccino or need to wait for your budget to reset next month.

6. Goodbudget

Formerly known as Easy Envelope Budget Aid or EEBA, Goodbudget is a perfect option for couples that want to share their budgeting process together. It uses the familiar envelope budgeting philosophy to power your proactive budget for all of your bills and spending.

Because you can share and sync budgets with budgeting partners across the iPhone and Android spectrum, it is great for couples with shared finances, while working great for solo budgeters also.

When you add new transactions, you have the option to add a number of details, breaking up your expenses into multiple envelopes. Budget by category (called envelopes in the app) with up to 10 envelopes for free. Add to your envelopes from your income every payday and you’ll know just how much you have leftover for non-essential purchases.

7. Simple

Simple is more than a budgeting app, it is an online bank account that replaces your old checking account and has tons of useful budgeting features built-in. When your budget and your bank live in the same app, it is much easier to manage and keep everything under control because you only have one place to visit to view and manage your money.

Simple tracks your income and spending automatically, and has a goal feature to motivate your savings. It’s trademarked Safe-to-Spend^® feature tells you if you are on your budgeting track, or if extra spending might derail your plans. With no fees, this is a very cool all-in-one banking and budgeting app.

8. Personal Capital

Personal Capital offers a complete investment advising solution, a hybrid robo-advisor, and human advisor service in one. Without paying a cent, you can access Personal Capital’s free money tracking dashboard, which includes some handy budgeting features.

Personal Capital put the majority of emphasis on investments, with free and automated analysis of your investment fees, asset classes and other important investment details.

The cash flow and budgeting tools are not quite as extensive as other apps on this list, but they work just similarly using the same automated tracking of purchases from linked accounts.

Do Budgeting Apps Really Work?

Mint, You Need a Budget (YNAB) and Digit are financial budgeting apps now commonly seen on millennials’ smartphones. According to a study done by Bankrate, a website that helps consumers compare products and financial rates, 34 percent of 18 to 34 years-olds have at least one budgeting app on their mobile device.

So how much are these apps helping the more than a third of millennials who use them? According to experts, it might not be much.

Having an app to create a budget and track purchases seems like a good idea, but experts say simply downloading and having constant access to an app won’t necessarily result in better money management or increased savings.

“The apps work. They’re smart, the tech is good and the idea of building a budget isn’t rocket science. But the app can’t hold you accountable,” said Alex Avendano, co-founder, and CEO of RoboCore Systems, a platform that enables rapid and low-cost deployment of robo-advisors and financial apps.

Jon Rugg, president of Los Angeles-based investment advisory firm C&R Advisors, echoed this point, saying that “the e-space has allowed high-quality services to be available and allows people to start saving early. It’s a great starting point to get the ball rolling, to create a plan, get educated, and eventually invest.”

But he believes these apps might fall short in helping users actually create – and stick to – a budget. He points to student debt as one of the issues that might make formulating a budget for millennials “very challenging.” According to the latest data from the New York Federal Reserve, millennials owe over 1 trillion dollars in student debt.

Rugg also argues that even if people are covering their day-to-day expenses and bills, budgeting apps don’t necessarily emphasize the importance of long-term investing and planning for the future. “I have some millennials who are very focused and great savers, but it’s easy for them to think they will always make money….You’re covering everything right now, but if anything slows down, there’s no margin for error,” he said when reached via phone.

One of the major draws of budgeting apps is the constant, real-time info that keeps users constantly aware of their every purchase. Avendano argues that features like “a mobile delivery experience, driven through texts or an app,” are specifically targeting millennials.

But even with more up-to-date personal financial information than ever, both Avendano and Rugg think budgeting apps are just the starting point in the e-finance space. They suggest working with a financial advisor in order to get a more holistic view of personal finances.

How Safe are Budgeting Apps?

If you decide to use a budgeting app to manage your finances, safety should be one of the factors you look out for. However, whether a budgeting app is safe or not, will depend on your usage. But, we will provide some tips to help you keep your budgeting app safe.

It is interesting to note that not all budget apps require access to bank statements and credit card accounts. Rather than have users hand over bank account numbers, YouNeedABudget.com asks them to download bank statements into a Dropbox file; a YNAB spokeswoman says Dropbox uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect data.

Here are some provisions that the banks provide.

Card protections kick in

Banks and card networks say in the event of a breach, zero-liability protection would cover any fraudulent charges. MasterCard’s policy covers both debit and credit cards. “Our zero liability protection applies whenever a MasterCard branded card is used,” says Becky Kitchener, a spokeswoman for MasterCard. “App use has no impact on card protections.”

Wells Fargo, too, would cover fraudulent charges on credit or debit cards if an app were to have a security breach, according to a spokeswoman.

Even if it didn’t, U.S. law offers protection. The Fair Credit Billing Act limits consumer liability to $50 for unauthorized charges on credit cards, and $0 if the user reports a stolen card before the card is used fraudulently. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act offers similar protections to debit card users in certain cases.

The fine print

Both bank-based and law-based protections come with some fine print, though. Users must dispute charges within a fixed time frame. For instance, you have 60 days to comply with the Fair Credit Billing Act. You’ll need to report fraudulent debit card charges within two business days or you could be on the hook for up to $500. Wait more than 60 days and you could be liable for the entire amount.

The fine print at most banks says cardholders must exercise reasonable care in protecting their privacy, as well as report fraud in a timely fashion.Mint.com, for its part, referred to FCBA guidelines when asked about credit card protection. It says debit card protections depend on the user’s bank.

Some banks will not cover unauthorized debit card charges or fraudulent bank-account activity if customers hand over private information to a third party, says Leo Hopper, information security manager at GreenPath Debt Solutions, a nonprofit financial consulting agency in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Too, some financial institutions will not allow Mint.com access to customer accounts.

Hopper’s advice: Check with your bank before signing up with a budget app to see what protections are available to you. He also suggests checking with the apps you plan to use to see what protection they offer.

Risks to personal information

Yet another caveat: Terms of service “always say they will not share or sell your information, but that’s always subject to change,” particularly if an app is sold to another company, Hopper says.

Massive, hacker-led security breaches aren’t what bother experts such as Hopper, though. It’s personal carelessness that could cause a smartphone and an app, and all that sensitive information, to come into a crook’s possession.

“The greatest risk for these services is that all your information is accessible in one location,” Hopper says. “Worst case, they can access your info and do some form of identity theft.”

Greenpath counselors, he continues, encourage clients to use budget apps, as they’re useful tools for people who need help organizing budgets and finances. For the most part, the apps are reputable and safe: Users are more likely to click on a spam-phishing email and get “had” that way rather than have a budget app experience a systemwide breach, he says.

Budget app safety tips

The key to using a budget app safely: Follow good tech hygiene rules and use your brain. Here are seven app-safety guidelines from Becky House, education director at American Financial Solutions, a nonprofit financial counseling agency in Seattle.

1. Use the apps as your comfort level permits

Apps can track spending and saving by aggregating information from all accounts, “but there are a lot of people who are not comfortable connecting accounts [and] having all their eggs in one basket,” House says.

2. Protect yourself with a password

Budget app sites encrypt passwords, so even if a hacker were to break in, he’d have to decrypt passwords first. Someone who grabbed your iPhone off a table at Starbucks, though — that’s another story, particularly if your phone isn’t password-protected. The lesson: Password-protect your smartphone and set up the password function so you have to log in every time you use the phone.

3. Use complicated passwords

It’s old advice and worth repeating: For the phone and for the apps themselves, don’t use your birthday, address or other easily guessable digits as passwords. “Make sure it’s complicated,” House says.

4. Do not agree to auto-logins when you access a site

You know that window that pops up and asks, “Remember this password?” with the choice to answer “Yes,” “Not now,” or “Never for this site?” “Never” is always the right choice, House says.

5. Use anti-virus software on your phone

It’s something people should do, but don’t: “I feel I harp on this a lot,” House says. Norton, which makes anti-virus software for computers, has a smartphone version available at us.norton.com.

6. Pay attention

Budget apps alert users to activity on their bank accounts and credit card statements; if you see unusual activity, check it out and report it. That is crucial, as zero-liability and FCBA protections do hinge on timely reporting of fraudulent behavior.

7. Be discreet in public

Don’t play with your budget app when you’re using public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or at the airport; those airwaves are public and susceptible to breaches. If you must log on, say to check out an account activity report, use cellular data if possible and remember to log off as soon as you’re finished. Also be aware of who’s around you; someone at the next table might have a full view of your screen.

The bottom line: Budget apps can do lots to help users gain financial wisdom; the rewards of using them outweigh the risk. Users — by being smart and careful — can do much to reduce that risk.

How do you Start a Budget?

Whether you’re looking to create a personal budget spreadsheet or just get a better grasp on money management, start with these six steps.

Even if you don’t use a budget spreadsheet, you probably need some way of determining where your money is going each month. Creating a budget with a template can help you feel more in control of your finances and let you save money for your goals.

The trick is to figure out a way to track your finances that works for you. The following steps can help you create a budget.

Step 1: Note your net income

The first step in creating a budget is to identify the amount of money you have coming in. Keep in mind, however, that it’s easy to overestimate what you can afford if you think of your total salary as what you have to spend.

Remember to subtract your deductions, such as for Social Security, taxes, 401(k) and flexible spending account allocations, when creating a budget worksheet. Your final take-home pay is called net income, and that is the number you should use when creating a budget.

If you have a hobby or a talent, you may be able to find a way to supplement your income. Having an extra source of income can also be helpful if you ever lose your job.

Step 2: Track your spending

It’s helpful to keep track of and categorize your spending so you know where you can make adjustments. Doing so will help you identify what you are spending the most money on and where it might be easiest to cut back.

Begin by listing all your fixed expenses. These are regular monthly bills such as rent or mortgage, utilities or car payments. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to cut back on these, but knowing how much of your monthly income they take up can be helpful.

Next list all your variable expenses—those that may change from month to month such as groceries, gas and entertainment. This is an area where you might find opportunities to cut back. Credit card and bank statements are a good place to start since they often itemize or categorize your monthly expenditures.

Record your daily spending with anything that’s handy—a pen and paper, an app or your smartphone.

Step 3: Set your goals

Before you start sifting through the information you’ve tracked, make a list of all the financial goals you want to accomplish in the short-and long-term. Short-term goals should take no longer than a year to achieve. Long-term goals, such as saving for retirement or your child’s education, may take years to reach.

Remember, your goals don’t have to be set in stone, but identifying your priorities before you start planning a budget will help. For example, it may be easier to cut spending if you know your short-term goal is to reduce credit card debt.

Step 4: Make a plan

Use the variable and fixed expenses you compiled to help you get a sense of what you’ll spend in the coming months. With your fixed expenses, you can predict fairly accurately how much you’ll have to budget for. Use your past spending habits as a guide when trying to predict your variable expenses. 

You might choose to break down your expenses even further, between things you need to have and things you want to have. For instance, if you drive to work every day, gasoline probably counts as a need. A monthly music subscription, however, may count as a want. This difference becomes important when it’s time to make adjustments.

Step 5: Adjust your habits if necessary

Once you’ve done all this, you have what you need to complete your budget. Having documented your income and spending, you can start to see where you have money left over or where you can cut back so that you have money to put toward your goals. 

Want-to-have expenses are the first area to look for spending cuts. Can you skip movie night in favor of a movie at home? Try adjusting the numbers you’ve tracked to see how much money that frees up. If you’ve already adjusted your spending on wants, evaluate your spending on needs. You may need internet at home, but do you need the fastest available? 

Lastly, if the numbers still aren’t adding up, you can look at adjusting your fixed expenses. Doing so will be much more difficult and require greater discipline, but on close inspection a “need” may just be a “hard to part with.” Such decisions come with big trade-offs, so make sure you carefully weigh your options. 

Small savings can add up to a lot of money, so don’t overlook the little stuff. You might be surprised at how much extra money you accumulate by making one minor adjustment at a time.

Step 6: Keep checking in

It’s important that you review your budget on a regular basis to be sure you are staying on track. You can also compare your monthly expenses to those of people similar to you.

Few elements of your budget are set in stone: You may get a raise, your expenses may increase or you may have reached your goal and want to plan for a new one. Whatever the reason, keep checking in with your budget following the steps above.

How do you Start a Budget With no Money?

We have been talking about budgeting and all the advantages that it provide, but how do you budget when you don’t even have money or a job? You need to be aware of the bills, irregular expenses that pop up every few months, and how much you really have to spend toward things like groceries and gas.

Here’s how to effectively create a budget while living paycheck to paycheck.

Begin by Tracking Your Spending

It all starts with knowing where your money is going, down to the last cent. You can’t afford to lack this knowledge when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. It’s invaluable, and it will open your eyes as to where you’re putting your money every month. You may be surprised at the results.

You might want to track your spending for a few weeks, or even a whole month, to get an idea of the entire picture. If you pay with cash, you can use a note app on your phone, or get a daily planner. Use whatever tools make sense and work for you, as long as they provide an easy way to keep track of transactions.

Alternatively, you can use an online service like Mint.com to help you track your spending. You can link your credit card and bank accounts up with Mint.com and set a budget with it, too. You could also use an old-fashioned Excel spreadsheet. Again, do what works best for you.

They key is to prevent anything slipping through the cracks.

Compile a List of Expenses

To start your budget, you will want to compile a list of current expenses so you know how much money you’ll be spending in a given month. Yes, some things may change from month to month.

To deal with this, break your expenses down into fixed costs – like your mortgage or rent, car payment – and flexible or variable costs, like groceries, gas, and utility bills.

Budgeting will also help you prepare in situations where you have to deal with some highly irregular expenses. Events such as birthdays, holidays, and car maintenance tend to sneak up on people.

If you do your best to include these in your budget where you know they might pop up twice or three times per year, you will know ahead of time to move money around for them.

You can make a budget for every month of the year to deal with events like Christmas or a school holiday. Or, you can maintain the same budget across the board and break down big, infrequent or yearly expenses into something that works out to be just $10 or $20 per month.

The latter option might be better for those struggling to make ends meet as it is. It allows you to take a big cost and break it down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Do the Math

This might be an unpleasant part of budgeting, but it is a necessary one. Fill in what you would ideally like to spend on your variable expenses, and add up all of your expenses. Then, calculate how much income you bring in every month.

This is easier to calculate if you’re salaried, but if you’re not, you can go through your paystubs to get a better idea of what your average income looks like.

After you have your amount, subtract your total expenses from your income. Do you have anything left?

Analyze Your Actual Spending

If you don’t, it’s time to face the music. Be honest with yourself and your numbers, and accept it might be time to tweak your budget.

Are you going out for dinner and movie once or twice per week? Do you have cable, or an expensive cell phone bill? Are you paying for a $100 per month gym membership but struggling to come up with money for the electric bill?

Work to lower your expenses so that you do have something left over at the end of the month. If your goal is to try and save whatever you can, you should be doing everything in your power to spend only on what is necessary.

If you do have an amount left over after you’ve looked at the total cost of your expenses versus the income you’re actually bringing in, that’s great – but your work isn’t done yet.

Factor in your actual spending after tracking it for a month or two. Use the information you gathered via your spreadsheets, a budgeting tool like Mint, or other app of your choice. Add what you actually spend for the month up, and ask yourself that all important question once again: do you still have money left at the end of the month?

If you don’t, it’s time to take a closer look at your finances.

Plug any leaks that you find. Have you developed a habit of going out for lunch at work? Are you throwing out groceries at the end of the week because they went bad? Are you being wasteful with electric?

It might turn out that you can prevent yourself from living paycheck to paycheck with a few simple fixes and small changes of habit.

Look for ways to increase income

It can be really hard to make more money, but there are ways to do it if you have a little extra time in your week, and this can help you be successful with your budget. One of the main ways is to look online or look in your local community for well-paying freelance or hourly jobs.

For example, a student, local business, or neighbor may need help with writing essays, learning to play an instrument, building a website, etc. If you have a hobby or a talent, you might be able to get paid for teaching someone or creating a product for them.  

Use Your Budget as a Tool

You budget is a tool to help keep you accountable, so make use of it. When you have a clear guideline to follow every month, making decisions on where to spend becomes easier.

Your budget will tell you how much you have left to spend on your variable expenses. If you go over on one category, figure out what went wrong, and correct it for the next month.

Read Also: Ways you can Improve Your Relationship With Money

Be sure to practice mindful spending. This means eliminating impulse buys and ensuring that what you’re spending your money on is actually aligned with your values.

If you want to do more with your finances and stop living paycheck to paycheck, you must prioritize your spending and understand what is truly important to you (here’s a hint for success: it shouldn’t be material goods!).

While it’s important to be disciplined where spending is concerned, you have to be realistic with your budget. If you try and cut your grocery spending by too much, you might find yourself missing the target and becoming disappointed.

Your budget is going to need tweaks here and there; try and work with it, not against it. No one gets budgeting right on their first try. Hopefully, by tracking your expenses and working to reduce them, you can start saving part of your paycheck instead of spending it.