Simple and Helpful Budgeting Tools to Make Your Budget-Tracking Easier

The idea of managing budget is draining for many people. That being said, establishing budget plan and actually sticking to it are some of the first crucial steps you need to take to achieve your financial goals. An essential element that can help you to build ability to carry out the plan is to use the right type of budgeting tool. In the following list, you’ll read about various forms of budgeting tools – from modern to traditional ones – to keep an eye of your spending.

6 Best Budgeting Management Tools for Seasoned and Newbie Budgeters 

1. Spreadsheets

Spreadsheet is an extremely customizable method to keep tabs on your expenses and income. It is possible to get template of budgeting spreadsheet from online resources with pre-made formats containing dates, labels, and formulas, which can help to make the task of budget arrangement a lot easier. These templates are typically available for free to be downloaded by users in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel formatted document.

Alternatively, creating the spreadsheet on your own is also plausible. There are plenty of guides online, in the form of written or video tutorials that may be able to assist you throughout the process.

2. Worksheets

Worksheet is a budgeting tool that fits to first-timers of budget management because it is easy and simple. In general, it provides suggested percentages of how much you should spend your income on various category from month to month.

There are some organizations that offer budgeting worksheet for free, such as American Consumer Credit Counseling (ACCC). In their official website, you can find a wide range of worksheet to suit your certain budgeting requirement.

3. Banking Tools

Do you know that several banks provide budgeting management tools for free in their websites? Some examples of institutions that provide budgeting resources to help their customers tracking earnings and expenses are Chase, Bank of America, and some credit unions. The budgeting tools made by bank typically let you to obtain reports of your spending and export the data to your personal devices.

One doesn’t need to have expertise in technology to use these tools. They usually present graphs and charts in different spending category, for instance, online bill payment. There are possibly other available tools offered by your bank that may help you to manage your finance that aren’t particularly aimed for budgeting, such as notification alert when you have low balances.

4. Budgeting apps

Nowadays, it is extremely easy to find a list of mobile budgeting application that can help to keep track of your income and expenses. Some apps even allow you to connect to your credit cards or banking account, so any spending and transaction will be automatically recorded.

Some of these apps are available for free or at economical price. You can download and compare some of them to discover the best one that have the best set of features that suit with your budget management style.

5. Envelopes

The system of envelope budgeting requires you to place cash into several different envelopes for major categories of spending, such as bills, clothing, groceries, etc. By using this method, you can easily see the amount of available money for each category of expenses. When a certain envelope runs out of money, then you shouldn’t spend more on that category until your next round of income comes.

It is a highly practical budgeting system option, even for newbies, not only because it allows them to easily customize their budget needs, but also it doesn’t involve painstaking spending tracking. It is a fail-proof alternative, as long as the budgeters know how to distribute their money and differ between their needs and their wants. 

6. Pen and Paper

With the growth of technology, budgeting software and apps are becoming more and more popular. However, the simplest form of budgeting tool doesn’t require you to use much rather than a pen and papers. 

This method involves noting down the details of your expenses, categorize them, and compare them to your income, to see if there’s any money left to be saved or to be spent elsewhere. If you find you earn less than you need to spend, then you have to make adjustment to balance your budget. Slight adjustment may oblige you to cut out your gym membership or coffee shopping, while major adjustment may involve moving out to region with lower living costs.

Putting yourself through the process of budgeting management from time to time is a wise idea. Creating a plan of how you aim to expense your money and save some is a vital step to take to accomplish your financial goals both in short- and long-terms. The budgeting tools above will help you to eliminate the hassling part of budgeting. Feel free to take advantage of available online resources that suit your budgeting style. See more: debtconsolidation.com