5 Apps To Help You Maintain A Budget

By Danielle James · May 13, 2021May 13, 2021

When was the last time you thought about your financial goals? It’s one thing to visualize what you want to achieve but another thing to actually put your goals on paper.

A study conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University in California concluded that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. If you want to save money (whether for a vacation, a down payment on a home, or even that nice handbag you saw Rihanna wearing), in addition to creating a goal and writing it down, you need to have a budget. A budget takes a look at your income, your expenses, and where your money is going. If you’re struggling to create one, there are plenty of Excel and Google templates that you can use to help you understand your financial situation and how you spend. Certain credit card companies even provide breakdowns of where your monthly spend is going (i.e. entertainment, groceries, transportation).

Nevertheless, sometimes you need a little extra help. But don’t you worry—there’s an app for that! There are a plethora of apps on the market that will help you with your finances. We went through them all so you don’t have to. Keep reading for the 5 best apps to help you get your spending under control and reach your financial goals.

Mint

Mint is one of the best-known budget apps and has been around since 2006. It’s owned by Intuit, which is the same company that owns TurboTax and QuickBooks. Mint has a lot of features and the benefit of using this app is that it gives you a full overview of your finances. You can link your bank accounts, your credit cards, and even keep track of your bills (which Mint will send you alerts when it’s time to pay via their Bill Payment Tracker). When you link your bank accounts to your Mint profile, the app will look at your spending and suggest a personalized budget goal. You can adjust this suggestion or create your own. The best part of this app? It’s free.

EveryDollar

Your financial future and savings plan doesn’t have to be time consuming. EveryDollar boasts that you can create your first budget in less than 10 minutes by utilizing their app, leaving you time to get back to the other parts of your life. You start by adding your monthly income and then make a plan for your income. EveryDollar gives customizable budgeting templates for your monthly expenses. Every time you make a purchase, you create a transaction into the app and track your budget. While this may seem slightly time consuming to do such, it will make you more conscious of your spending. EveryDollar is free; however, if you want to connect your financial accounts for automatic financial tracking, you’ll need to purchase EveryDollar Plus. EveryDollar Plus will run you $99.00 a year.

You Need A Budget

You Need A Budget (YNAB) is based off of their budgeting principles that they call “the four rules.” The app provides a lot of learning and support so you aren’t just mindlessly creating a budget but learning tools. This support comes in the form of 20 minute, live workshops that happen daily. Topics include getting started (where you learn the four rules), debt and credit cards, building savings, helping you to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, budgeting with a partner and more. Knowledge is power and in addition to helping you create and manage your finances, they educate you and are intentional with assisting you in thinking through your priorities. The app offers a free trial for 34 days, but then costs $11.99 a month or a one-time payment of $84.00 for the entire year. The workshops are free and anyone can take them, so even if you don’t use the app, you can still gain additional financial knowledge.

Mvelopes

This app is perfect for cash style budgeting. Mvelopes utilizes a concept called envelope budgeting where you put cash in different category envelopes based on the transaction type, and are bringing it into the digital age. When your envelope is empty, you’ve spent that category for a month. You link your credit and debit cards to help you achieve this. They provide three types of interactive reports that help you better understand your spending: account reports, spending plan, and envelope reports. With these reports you can track your spending, create summary reports, and more. Mvelopes has weekly webinars to help educate your way to financial freedom. The app is not free and has three different levels: Basic, Premier, and Plus. The Basic plan is $5.97 a month, allows you to link your accounts, provides auto transaction importing and account balance monitoring, live chat and knowledge base feature, and interactive reports. The Premier plan is $9.97 a month and offers you 30 days free. It gives you everything the Basic plan offers, but also additional features like initial setup assistance, access to the Mvelopes Learning Center and more. The Plus plan is $19.97 a month and gives you access to everything the Basic and Premier plan offer; however, it also gives you a dedicated personal coach, a personalized financial plan, as well as coaching sessions.

Qapital

Do you want to save money without worrying about creating a budget? Qapital may be for you. Qapital automates your savings with the personal finance method of paying yourself first. You can set a day (payday) to have money immediately transferred from your checking account to your savings account. They also offer a checking account without traditional banking fees—you don’t have to hold a minimum balance and there are no foreign transactions or overdraft fees. They provide you with a debit card and each time you pay for something, you can save. You can round to the nearest dollar, up to $5.00. They also have savings options if you spend less. Say you don’t use all of your gas money for the month, the difference automatically goes into savings. They also have helpful tools for Freelancers—every time you get paid, money can be set aside for taxes. The app requires a minimum $10.00 investment and has three levels: Basic, Complete, and Master. The Basic costs $3.00 a month, Complete is $6.00 a month, while the Master is $12.00 a month. The Basic membership is best for individuals who just want to save for a short-term goal while Complete gives you access to saving, budgeting, spending, and even investing tools. The Master membership gives you access to everything the Complete does but also gives access to webinars and in-app challenges, which gamifies saving.