You can designate how much you want to save for the long-term each month. It then suggests budget amounts for each spending category, such as groceries or entertainment, based on your past spending. How it works: The app uses your credit history to find your various accounts-which can include checking, savings, credit cards, loans, investments, property and taxes-and asks if you want to add them. The premium offering, which includes subscription management and deeper spending insights, is $4.99 a month.īest for: New budgeters who want an easy way to see where all their money is going. If you’d like to read how we vetted and tested these budgeting apps and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more detail.Ĭost: Mint’s standard version is free, and the ad-free version costs 99 cents a month. Here are the four that met our criteria for important features, ease of use, design, price and intuitiveness. I spent a month with each app, testing capabilities and comparing features, and I consulted with financial planners to identify the most important app features. We based these picks on my average-person budget: I’m a married 30-something with no kids in New York City and saving to buy a house. There are a lot of popular budgeting methods -such as 50/30/30 and zero-based budgeting-but for most people, the apps make it easier to stick to a budget and automating your personal finances can have great benefits, as The Wall Street Journal newsroom has reported

Best for hands-on, zero-based budgeting.Using mobile programs for budgeting can also “help you visualize your expenses and start asking yourself valuable questions about how you’re spending your money,” says Jordan Benold, a Frisco, Texas-based certified financial planner. If you’ve been wary of budgeting because you weren’t sure where to start or the prospect of doing math was daunting, there are plenty of apps to do the tedious work for you - no spreadsheets necessary.

Budgeting finances