Today, there is an app for everything. The most popular apps are arguably social media apps. Apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, have made communication easier for many worldwide and dominate the app usage scene. But other apps go under the radar for utility, for instance, budgeting apps. The Covid-19 pandemic has many people clutching their pocketbooks and pinching every penny, and budgeting apps are an excellent way to manage and track your monthly spending. Here are seven budgeting apps that may help you achieve your financial goals.

1. Pocket Guard

Pocket Guard is a budget app capable of connecting your checking, credit, and savings account. The app detects recurring bills and income while also keeping track of your everyday spending. PocketGuard subtracts upcoming bills, savings goal contributions, and pre-budgeted money from your estimated income to determine how much money you have for daily expenditures. The app automatically categorizes expenses, allows for category customization, and lets you export transactions into spreadsheets.

PocketGuard is easy to set up and can track each of your bills to find saving opportunities. The app analyzes your bills and compares them to other companies to recommend lower service costs to help track budget and lower spending.

Overall, PocketGuard is designed to prevent overspending. The app uses an algorithm to track your income, expenses, and savings goals so you know how much you can spend every day. The app has a free version, but PocketGuard Plus has a cost. PocketGuard also uses 256-bit encryption, a four-digit PIN, and biometrics, including Touch ID and Face ID, for security and protection.

2. Mint

Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps on the market. The app is free and easy to use, allowing you to set up bill payment reminders, track investments, and access your TransUnion credit score. The app tracks and categorizes your transactions and alerts you when you are going over budget. Mint also alerts suspicious transactions and ATM fees.

Mint is owned by Intuit, the company that makes Quickbooks and TurboTax. This tool offers features to help you track and manage your money from a list of banks, credit card issuers, brokerages, lenders, and other financial institutions. In addition to those resources, Mint also offers education resources like a home affordability calculator, loan repayment calculator, and blog with personal finance topics. The app protects data through security scanning with Verisign, multifactor authentication, and touch ID mobile access. The company stores your information in a separate database with hardware and software encryption levels, so you’re sure to be secure.

3. You Need a Budget (YNAB)

You Need a Budget (YNAB) is an app based on a zero-based budgeting system, which accounts for every cent earned. YNAB tracks living expenses, debt payments, savings, and investments, so each dollar is accounted for. The app even has options to sync to your bank account, although the free version only allows manual transaction input.

The app also offers video courses, a live workshop, and guides to help learn the basics about the app. It also uses bank-level encryption for all data, top practices for password security, and third-party audits. The company boasts that new budgeters usually save $600 in their first two months and $6000 in their first year.

Are you interested in the paid version? You can try YNAB for 34 days for free, and then the plans are $11.99 per month or $84 per year.

4. Goodbudget

Are you a fan of more traditional methods of budgeting? Goodbudget gives you the best of both worlds!

Goodbudget operates on the envelope system. The envelope system is a budgeting method that lets you physically portion out your monthly income into different spending categories. With the envelope system, you take some envelopes, write a specific expense on each one, then put the money you intend to allot to each expense.

Goodbudget is suggested to be perfect for couples who want to share the budgeting process. You can still break your expenses into multiple envelopes, but now you can sync your budget with your spouse or partner. The app offers ten envelopes for free. If you need more, you can take advantage of their paid membership, which is $7 per month or $60 per year.

5. Honeydue

Honeydue is an app that lets you and your partner see each other’s finances. You can choose how much information you wish to share with your partner, so they won’t have all of your financial information if you choose not to. You can also set up custom categories and monthly limits, with the app letting you know when you or your partner is reaching their spending limit. Honeydue also sends reminders for upcoming bills so you can keep track. Another cool thing about the app is that it also enables you to chat and send emojis!

6. Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a financial tracker and investment tool app. PC lets users connect and monitor checking, savings, credit card accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages, and loans. The app also offers a net worth tracker and portfolio breakdown.

Personal Capital offers investment advising, a robo-advisor, and a human advisor in their service. The app offers a free money tracking dashboard and emphasizes investments to analyze investment fees, asset classes, and other investment details. The app also has an education planner tool.

While Personal Capital isn’t as budget-centric as the others, it is still a great tool to track how much you are spending and just how much wealth you are building overall.

The primary app is free, but you can add an investment management option for 0.89% of your funds under 1 million. PC protects your data with encryption, fraud protection, and robust authentication also.

7. Simplifi

Simplifi is an app that can connect your bank accounts, categorize expenses, and track upcoming bills. The neat thing about this app is that it offers a personalized spending plan with real-time updates on your finances.

Simplifi is owned by Quicken, which has been trusted with sensitive financial data for decades. The app uses 256-bit encryption to transmit banking data to keep the information confidential.

Ready to try it out? The app offers a free 30-day trial, then $3.99/month or 35.99/year.

Notable Mentions

These apps didn’t make our list of the best of 2021, but they are still worth mentioning!

Clarity Money tracks your spending and suggests subscriptions to cancel.
Honeyfi and Zeta are apps that help partners budget together, similarly to Honeydue.
Mvelopes, like Goodbudget, can sync bank accounts. This method is a little more challenging than using cash, but Mvelopes makes it easy to follow. Mvelopes is not a free app, but it can connect unlimited financial accounts and has real-time budget matching.
Daily Budget Original (iOS only) and Fudget are manual input trackers. You must manually input incoming and outgoing money.

Final Thoughts

Budgeting is not a simple task. It takes discipline and commitment. Without a budget, it is easy to overspend and under-save. Budgeting apps will help reveal the truth behind your spending and saving if you use it appropriately. We can easily estimate that we have more than enough funds until we forget a specific bill is coming up. Budgeting apps help keep track of monthly bills to help you stay on top of your finances and get the most from your money!