Today for Money Monday I wanted
to share with you the budgeting app that we use. In our budget we literally
account for every dollar that we spend. For example if we go shopping and the
kids want donuts (their favourite shopping treat), then that $6 gets documented.
We are on a exciting journey to become debt free, so we have put together a
budget that fits not only our income but also our goals.
Although I love all things
budgeting, I’m too busy to use any system that is really time consuming or
complicated. This app
that I found earlier this year is a little bit like an electronic envelope
system. We personally don’t deal in cash a lot, so it works fabulously for us.
One thing that we don’t use this app for is our bills. You definitely can put
them in, but we have all our bills come out of a bills account, that an
allocated amount of money gets put into every week. So for us, we use this app
for all spending money. Because we like
to keep things really simple & un-complicated, we only use 3 categories:
*Groceries –
Records all our grocery spending
*Petrol –Records
our petrol
*Entertainment
& Eat out – Records all of our spending that does not fit into the above 2
categories and is not a loan or bill. So that is everything from clothing,
shoes, birthday presents, Christmas presents, holidays, house renovations, take out etc,
etc.
The app is called "Track My Spend" by ASIC's Money Smart.
Here are
some pictures of the app (these are images from the net, so are not my personal information), which will help me
explain all the different features.
Along the bottom of the app, you have 5 tabs...Expenses, Summary, Favourites, History & Settings. Head to the Settings tab and you will come to the above page. This is where you enter your spending cycle, Spending limit (where you can enter amounts for each category) and a few other details. Once that is set up, all you need to do is enter the details when you make a purchase.
The Expense tab (pictured above left) shows how much you have spent in total and how much you have left in your budget overall. When you want you add a purchase, go to the expenses tab and hit the "add new expense" button and you will be directed to the picture below. After you enter the amount & description, you choose the category that it was spent from. If you want to see how much you have spent in each category, head to the summary tab and you will see a page like the one pictured above on the right. It shows you how much you have spent out of each category and how much you have left.
The History tab lists all the things that you have purchased in date order and also includes the category that it was spent from.
And that is it in a nutshell. It is super easy to use and having it on your phone is very convenient.
This app is free to download, so why not give it a try and see if it works for you!
Kylie xx
