by College students often find themselves struggling with budgeting because they are not used to having so many expenses. Many college students struggle with their finances every day, constantly faced with buying textbooks or making food for ourselves.
In college, managing your finances can be a challenge. Dorm expenses, textbooks, and having fun with friends can easily result in spending more money than you have saved up. We need all of the assistance we can get to ensure that we don’t spend more than necessary. That’s why, after much research, I’ve compiled a list of the best budgeting apps for college students.
Mint
Mint automatically syncs your bank information to know how much money is in your account and what you’ve spent throughout the month. You can also link credit cards for a full view of all expenses and see where every dollar is going, making it easy to stay on top of what you have left to spend throughout the month.
This app tracks spending trends so that users can learn when they need less money for groceries or when their electricity bill usually comes through, etc. In general, this app reduces stress about finances by letting users see an overall picture of personal finance.
YNAB (You Need a Budget)
This app uses the “give every dollar a job” method to help you manage your money so that you can allocate funds towards your larger goals. YNAB is an app available on iOS and Android and a web version. This resource gives every dollar a job you start by allocating funds towards your larger goals, such as debt repayment or college savings.
And once this money has been assigned purpose, the system will keep track of your spending to ensure you stick to your plan. This way, you can feel confident in making purchases without worrying about overspending and breaking the bank.
Example Of A College Budget Pdf
Check
This app logs all of your receipts and records them automatically. You can even use this app to compare prices at different stores so that you can spot the best deals quickly.The interface of Check is pretty straightforward. You’ll see your daily transactions along with the associated prices; if you’ve split any purchases, they’ll appear as sub-categories here.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to customize the names of these expenditures, so you’re stuck with a lot of pre-populated but generic terms like “groceries,” “shopping,” and so on. There’s also a convenient graph to help you see your spending trends over time. The program is free, and none of its functions are hampered by the lack of a fee. That said, with no real drawbacks comes little reason to choose this over a free alternative. Check is a good app for those who want an instantly accessible record of their spending, but it definitely won’t blow you away.
Price: You can use the app for free, but you’ll get limited features. To unlock full functionality — including unlimited receipt storage and price comparisons, you’ll need to subscribe. There are four different plans available: $2.99 per month, $4.99 per 3 months, $7.99 per 6 months, and $9.99 per year.
How to save money: The app lets you set financial goals so that you can track your progress toward them throughout the month. You can also make budgets for specific spending categories, like socializing or entertainment, and receive alerts when you start going over budget.
Qapital
This app lets you save money by setting rules for yourself. You can automatically deposit a certain amount of money into your savings account every time you purchase something, for example, or transfer a certain amount of money from your checking account to your savings whenever you reach a certain balance in it.
You can also round up certain transactions and save the difference or set up recurring automated transfers that will happen once a day, week, month, etc. As a result, it is for everyone, from beginners to personal finance experts.
You can create notifications to notify you of important events, such as an upcoming transfer. The app’s design includes neat features like a colorful, easy-to-navigate interface and even a customizable progress indicator. It’s also worth mentioning that the Qapital app itself has a solid authentication factor, allowing you to set up personal identification numbers (PINs) for logging into your account or changing your settings, as well as other privacy features like PIN lock.
However, one drawback I found is that the minimum account balance to start a transfer is fairly high, currently set at $2,500. This limit can be raised by completing certain offers or checking out other users’ profiles. This increase should only take a few seconds, and it might be well worth it for you if you’re saving up for something big.
Clarity Money
Here are some key points about this app:
Clarity Money is a budgeting app that promises to save you money. It’s like Mint, but it claims it can be much simpler and more innovative than Mint.
Clarity’s mission is to change the financial industry by using technology to help people lead happier, healthier, and more fulfilled lives.
Clarity Money allows you to see all of your spending in one place so that you can track it and budget it. This way, you never have to wonder where your money goes because it keeps a detailed list for you.
It allows you to see your spending habits and then provides you with tools to help you save money. It also enables you to understand how getting rid of just $15/month in subscriptions could affect your savings each year.
You can look at your spending across different categories and then set budgets for those categories. Then, you’ll receive notifications if you’re over budget or if there is money left over. This is one of the best features of the Clarity Money app. Not only does it allow you to enter all of your expenses into one place, but you can set it up to also track all of your income.
It will give you a detailed list of how much money you have coming in and going out, as well as how much money you have leftover at the end of each month. These numbers help it calculate your savings rate based on the current month’s income, then compares it to past months.
Expensify
Although this app can be helpful for people who track their expenses manually, it’s mainly designed to help employers or freelancers manage their business’s expenses by using details from receipts via mobile phones or tablets.
It reduces the paperwork involved in expense reports, saving both employers and employees a lot of time.
Goodbudget
This app lets you set a spending plan for yourself, allocating funds towards different types of expenses, such as utilities or groceries. You can use it as a tracker to keep track of daily expenses. You can also use it to save for more significant purchases. The app is free and an optional in-app purchase if you want to get rid of ads and use offline mode. It works with biweekly, weekly, monthly, or yearly cycles.
There are 3 different types of users:
1) Casual User – someone who uses the app to keep track of their daily expenses.
2) Budgeter – Someone who creates budgets for different categories in the app.
3) Spender – someone who spends money on credit cards or cash. You can set a limit in the app, so you don’t overspend.
It allows you to pre-load your cards with funds before heading to the store, and if you go over the limit, it will block your card.
Moneytrackin
If you need an Android app that lets you track your finances on the go, this is a good choice because it doesn’t require Internet access to work (unlike some other apps). The app is designed for students with college degrees who are currently looking for a job, have an internship, or earn money from their own business. It allows you to track all incoming/outgoing incomes and expenses in detail according to currency types. You can sync your accounts and enter transactions manually or use the barcode scanner to identify items.
LevelMoney
While some budgeting apps help you make plans to achieve long-term goals like retirement savings, this one helps with short-term goals like buying groceries or paying rent.
Wally
This iOS app is unique because it shows you how your spending habits have changed over time. For example, did you spend more or less on groceries in January than in February? If so, why did your expenses change?
Wally has been engineered specifically for the latter purpose, as it helps you keep an eye on your daily spending so that nothing slips through the cracks. It’s also got an Apple Watch app to make things even easier, plus it has a few features specifically aimed at students.
These include an ATM finder to make tracking cash easy and the ability to create budgets for your “vacation spending money,” instead of having to carry extra cash around while you’re on break. Even though budgeting is not necessarily fun, it is essential to being financially savvy and independent.
Here are some pros to using these apps:
● You can set goals and save for them! So, instead of spending your money on that late-night sandwich from the store across campus, you could save it to take a trip with your friends.
● It’s a great way to get started with budgeting if you’ve never done so before. Just download an app or two, set a goal for yourself, and follow the steps that it gives.
You can monitor multiple accounts, including savings and checking (unusual for budgeting apps).
Bonus: you can monitor your partner’s or friend’s accounts too! If you want to save money to buy something big like a car or a house, the app gives you the option to add a ‘Target Budget.’
You can also set up recurring transactions, which is helpful for students because you don’t have to enter your coffee purchase every day.
In Conclusion
These are useful apps for managing your finances while in college, if you don’t want to download them on your phone and want something that can be accessed from any device. Hopefully, these budgeting apps can help college students save more money. [by being aware of what they are spending]
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