Expense Tracking Apps

The Habit of Budgeting: Best money apps to track your spending

Experts say that your budget is an essential tool to help you achieve your financial goals. Yet many remain intimidated by the task of budgeting.  On the Level Up podcast we explore the first small habit necessary for sticking to a budget – tracking your expenses.
There are a hundred expense tracking apps available for download. Our hosts Firas and Jenn tried them out and found the best two for you!

Firas tried out the Spending App, which is a good tool for beginner budgets because it’s very simple and not intimidating. Jenn reviews the Money Lover app which has 5Million downloads and advanced features in the premium version of the app.

Spending vs. Money Lover

The apps were evaluated according to price, user interface, user experience, planning capabilities and availability.
Both apps were totally usable in their free versions, though the Money Lover free version forces  you to watch video ads to create budgets, and does not allow you to customize categories. The one time P149.00 pro upgrade for the spending app gives you the ability to export your spending report, be rid of ads and enter recurring expenses.

The Money lover app looks great and is easy enough for the non- tech savvy to use. The PHP500 upgrade is worth it for customizing budgets so each category and sub category can have guidelines. We also loved the export features and ability to share your budgets with a partner.  It will also track loans and interest payments as well as earnings so it’s easy to see why it’s the most downloaded expense tracking app.

Both apps were very easy to set up and use, though the spending app typography won’t win any design awards, it shows you a line that turns red if your expenses overtake your income, which is a really handy way to track your spending.

Our Takeaways

Spending app free version is a good way to get into the habit of recording expenses but if you intend to apply a plan to help you reach financial goals, Money Lover and the customizable budgets are what we recommend. You’ll get a lot for the PHP500 one time purchase, and it’s worth the investment!

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