Keeping track of your spending is the best way to ensure that you’re living within your means, getting the most out of your money, and on target to meet your savings goals.
However, jotting figures down in a notebook or keeping Excel spreadsheets can be a drag. Simplify your life and take control of your finances with one of these handy online tools:
Spreadsheets and tables can be ugly, uninspiring, and difficult to visualise. New Zealand-based website PocketSmith does away with the drabness and offers a slick, stylish way of organising your finances. Rather than viewing your expenditures as rows on a table, PocketSmith allows you to enter them into days on a calendar, making it much easier to see how frequently you’re spending. You can also create savings goals and view your expenditures as charts or pie graphs.
Government-sponsored website Sorted, offers one of the best budget-making tools around. You won’t use it to keep track of your spending on a day-to-day basis, but log in every few months to see how your finances are shaping up long-term. Input your annual income and average monthly expenses and Sorted will calculate what’s left over. It also shows you what your expenses cost you annually. It’s pretty eye-opening to realise that your daily $3.50 coffee adds up to $1,277 per year!
Sick of reading articles and books about how to best use your money? Wish you could just talk to someone and have them advise you what to do? MoneyTV is your best alternative. This video blog is regularly updated with clips from experts speaking about a plethora of financial issues, from explanations of interest rates to advice on debt repayment, saving, and mortgages. Search the site by subject, subscribe to get the latest videos in your inbox, or write in and ask the experts for help.
Clear that debt with this handy little tool. Simply type in how much you owe, the interest rate you’re being charged, and the monthly payments you make in order to find how how long it’ll take to clear your debt - and how much interest you’ll be charged along the way. You can also specify a goal - for example, 6 months - and the planner will inform you how much to pay off each month in order to meet your target.
Moneytrackin’ is a good alternative to PocketSmith if you don’t enjoy the calendar view and would prefer to view your expenditures in list or table format. Providing similar features to PocketSmith, it’s equally as stylish and simple to use. You can set monthly limits on certain kinds of spending, view financial tips from other members (or write your own!) and there’s also an option to keep track of shared expenses, such as the budget for a flat or a group holiday.
