The key to start getting in control of your finances is to completely understand how much earn and how much you spend. Recording your spending activities in details and all your earnings will give you a clear overview of your cash flow on a particular period. By doing this, you will realize the way you value your hard-earned money and your spending attitude which will be detrimental for you to analyze and evaluate your finances.
Depending on your current financial situation, a good spending tool can help you manage your finances. However, there are many free budgeting tools that you can consider and choosing the best ones can better equip you in managing your finances.
Goodbudget is one of the best free spending tool apps for smartphones. Users will have to plan out their budget through the unique app feature which is the “envelope method”. What this app is designed to do is to let you visualize your money in envelopes just like in the old school days wherein you will set aside and categorize your money in 20 envelopes. The basic account is free but if you need to upgrade for unlimited envelope usage you can avail of the Goodbudget Plus which is $7 per month and for a year’s plan its $60.
Mint is another free budget tracker and planner which can be downloaded via the Appstore or Google Play. It offers extra features such as saving goals, net worth, investments and credit score aside from your income and expenses. Users can create saving goals, payment schemes with options to link to your bank account and credit cards. Mint also has great financial tool resources which you can access. Use of this spending tool is free but it comes with advertisements.
Google Sheets is a free to use spending tool for anyone who has a Gmail account. Explore the free spreadsheet features that will give you access to easy-to-use budgeting templates. Start categorizing your expenses with links to your financial accounts. The Google Sheets templates are good in mapping out spending habits while supporting you to start organizing your own budget. The good ‘ole hands-on approach is a good way to force you to fully understand the transaction you make every time you manually input an entry.
Whether you are trying to balance your expenses with your earnings, or you are trying to save for the future, these spending tools are of great help for your daily financial habits. They are also essential when you are trying to manage your debts or getting rid of debts for your future financial stability and security.
For more tools that can help you manage your debts effectively, check here.
With the help of these tools, we can make our financial status a little less stressful, especially nowadays that we are facing financial crisis from time to time. Most of them are user friendly and very convenient to use.
There are a lot of spending or financial tools available for free online. If you want better features and advance services, you may opt to the paid apps. You just have to be very careful which are really helpful and safe. Do some research before using any of these tools.