free budgeting software that links to your bank account

Free budgeting software that links to your bank account update#
Free budgeting software that links to your bank account manual#
Free budgeting software that links to your bank account upgrade#

Free budgeting software that links to your bank account update#

YNAB took me a few goes to get started and a lot of getting used to, but now it’s a daily habit to update the app and reprioritise my precious pennies based on whatever bill disaster has lately befallen me. It forces you to plan for those “surprises” that aren’t really surprises, such as car maintenance, the dentist, and the insurance bill (of course, this only works if you actually have enough money to cover all this stuff, so PAY YOUR WORKERS MORE AND FIX THE HOUSING CRISIS). Instead of showing you what you’ve spent in the past like so many personal finance apps, it helps you see where you need to put money for the future, and to get you to the point where you have at least 30 days’ funds sitting in your bank so you’re living ahead of your money and bills, rather than behind them. YNAB is a cheerful but deceptively powerful web-based app that uses the envelope system to help you understand exactly how much money you have and don’t have.

I never put enough away for taxes and bills, so I’d get awful frights when they came in – not fun. As a full-time freelancer for the past six years, I’ve had to get used to having thousands pile into my account on the 20th of one month, then having an eight-week dry spell while I write new stories and invoices work their way through the system. Since discovering You Need A Budget around August last year, it’s transformed my finances and brought peace and control into the insane world of my bank accounts. So if you’re a Westpac customer and you’re not using CashNav, what are you waiting for? And if you’re not with Westpac, it’s worth finding out if your bank offers something similar (eg: ASB ’s Track My Spending).

Free budgeting software that links to your bank account manual#

After all, most of my purchases either go through my card or online banking, so the fact that CashNav logs all these transactions automatically is great for when manual tracking just isn’t an option.ĬashNav isn’t perfect (for example, it’s automatic categorisation is occasionally wrong) but it’s great for identifying big picture trends as it shows how much you spend in a typical month. As a Westpac customer, I use CashNav, which is a pretty nifty tool that tells you how much you’re spending on a pretty accurate level. If manually tracking expenses isn’t really your thing, you’ll be pleased to know more and more banks are offering tools that automatically track spending based on transactions from your bank account.

Jihee Junn, staff writer at The Spinoff MoneyLover CashNav

Free budgeting software that links to your bank account upgrade#

Best of all? It’s free, so unless you decide to upgrade to premium, Money Lover won’t cost you a cent. There are also some pretty cool features like travel mode which allows you to distinguish holiday spending from regular spending in any currency you like. And if you think you’re spending too much on a certain area like food or groceries, you can, for example, set up a limit which alerts you when you’re getting close to overspending.Īn important part of any good expense tracker is also having the ability to set up recurring transactions – you don’t want to be stuck logging the same old transactions you know are going to happen every week, like rent and salary. These transactions can be sorted into categories like bills, shopping and petrol which is great since you can see exactly where your money’s going in one fell swoop. It’s got a clean and intuitive user interface which means logging purchases takes about as much time as it takes to check your email/Twitter feed/Instagram likes. Not only does it help keep how much you’re spending in a day/week at the forefront of your mind, but it also offers a small sense of security in knowing exactly how much of your money goes in and out.Īs a result, I’ve tried a lot of expense tracking apps over the years, and Money Lover happens to be the one I’ve stuck to the most. This probably sounds bizarre, but there’s something oddly therapeutic about monitoring your money with an expense tracking app. Here are just a few apps we recommend to help you on your way. Managing your money isn’t all about Excel sheets and financial diaries.