Most of us have to live within a budget. We just don’t earn enough to be able to buy whatever we want when we want. With a bit of practice, budgeting becomes almost second nature. But, initially, most people struggle, at least a bit. If you are in this situation or finding keeping track of your spending and adjusting your budget to be very time consuming, you will find this article to be helpful. Below, we share with you five different kinds of apps and online tools you can use to make budgeting far easier.
Online budget calculators
The first genre of tools we are going to look at is budget calculators. When you try this budget calculator you will see just how useful they are. They enable you to quickly list down your sources of income and your regular outgoings.
Using a good one you will be able to see, within minutes, if you have enough coming in to cover your bills. Most people instantly spot areas where they are spending far more than they thought. This opens up the opportunity to start to drill down and identify what the problem is and work out how to spend less on that item.
Price comparison sites
For example, if you appear to be spending a lot on heating your home you can visit a couple of comparison websites to see if you can secure a better deal. The same can be done for things like insurance, credit cards and other financial products.
Couponing and price comparison apps
In fact, you can compare the price of most things. If you are spending a lot on food, try using the mysupermarket website and/or app to reduce that bill. It is a powerful tool that enables you to search for exactly the product you want and find out which of the big supermarkets in your area are selling that exact item for the best price. Becoming adept at using it takes a bit of time. But, once you get a handle on things you will soon be saving a surprising amount on your food bill.
If you combine it with extreme couponing, food swapping and giveaway apps, you can reduce your bill by even more. There are lots of other things you can do too. Click this link to find out about 25 different ways people are keeping the cost of feeding their families to a minimum.
Spending trackers
Generally speaking, people who track their spending find it easier to live within their means. This is mostly because they can see before it is too late that they are about to overspend. People who do not keep track of how much they are spending on a daily basis cannot do that. They only realize, at the end of the month, that they are about to run out of money.
Squirrel is an interesting spending tracking app. It nicely separates your bill money from your spending cash and tracks everything as you spend it. You get warnings that tell you when you are in danger of overspending.
Apps to help you to save
Importantly, this app also helps you to save. You just need to decide how much of your salary should be put aside for a rainy day. Squirrel ring-fences that money t for you. It is a great way of getting into the saving habit. You can find out more about this app here.
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