I for one, suck at saving cash. The prospect of an awesome holiday isn’t enough to stop me from dropping a few hundred dollars on a pair of pants. Nor does the allusive vision of one day owning my own home ever inhibit a late and costly night out. But there is hope for the financially unrestrained and numerically challenged among us. Welcome to the world of money saving and tracking apps. There are plenty out there, but here are five that are simple yet effective.
#1 Cost Track
This app is beautiful for its simplicity and essentially works like a neater, better looking Excel spreadsheet. You enter your income or what you’re willing to spend for the day, week or month then add income or deduct expenses accordingly. The really awesome thing with Cost Track is that you can add images, voice recordings, notes, icons, places and times to your spending and earning, which makes the list interactive and engaging. You can export sheets and even change currencies if you’re overseas.
#2 TrackMySPEND
This app was created by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), a government body responsible for regulating the country’s corporate, markets and financial services. It’s simple, but that’s a fine thing, because it’s also very clear. You start by setting a spending cycle, a start date and a spending limit. You can switch on functions like “need/want” that allow you to mark items as either necessity or desirable, and easily classify items into well-defined categories and sub-categories.
#3 Good Budget
This app leans on a trusty old method of money saving, that is, syphoning off specific amounts into envelopes for later use. Good Budget invites you to designate digital envelopes for life’s various transactions, as well as for saving. A black line appears on each envelope to denote the day, providing real-time updates of how you’re tracking against your set budgeting period. It’s a gentle reminder of what is (or isn’t) left in your coffee fund, for example, and a great visual aid if you’re traditionally hostile to numbers stuff.
#4 Pocketbook
This nifty app pulls together information from all your Australian bank accounts, credit cards and financial institutions to give you a single, unified view of your spending. There are easy-to-understand graphs and charts which provide a convenient and holistic view of what’s happening with your money. You can also customise pretty much everything by modifying colour codes, adding notes and locations, or uploading images to each transaction. Pocketbook also detects recurring deductions and spending – think bills and income – and can alert you to anomalies should they arise. Clever huh?
#5 Groupee
This app is a must-have for anyone who enjoys eating out with friends but hates dividing the bill after. Groupee lets you work out exactly how the bill should be split and ensures that your mate Steve actually pays for the cannoli he vehemently denies scoffing. You can sign up with Facebook, save credit card details and host or join bills that require splitting.
Image Source: Pay With Groupee.
