A wise man once said that if you don’t treat your money respectfully, it’ll leave you with no respect. How we manage our money is personal and dependent on several factors like income, responsibility, black taxes, etc. Hence, budgeting, too, is individual. However, it doesn’t matter what your financial beliefs are; these basic personal budgeting tools will come in handy to help you build a healthy relationship with your money.

Budgeting is a great way to track and manage your finances without feeling deprived of your necessities. It helps to put in your check and make informed financial decisions over time.

With budgeting, you can understand where your money goes and limit what is unnecessary that takes your money.

Just in case you’re wondering what best budgeting tools are available for you? Here are the seven best personal budgeting tools we think you should check out.

Also Read: How To Make Money Online As A Freelancer

What Do Budgeting Tools Do?

Budgeting tools are simply financial tools that help you allocate portions of your salary to care for your wants and needs.

In most cases, it helps you gather data about your spending habits, cash flow, and other financial data you may need to make financial decisions.

Some budgeting apps are designed as stand-alone products while others have other financial features for everyday financial needs.

Best Personal Budgeting Tools

If you are looking for personal budgeting tools to make budgeting simple and efficient, here are some of the best personal budgeting tools you should consider.

PiggyVest

Piggyvest is one of the largest financial platforms for young adults to save and invest. With over five million users in the country, Piggyvest has been proven to be the go-to place for everything personal finance.

It’s user-friendly and offers diverse financial options like savings, investment, and budgeting.

With Piggyvest, you can manage your money with the flex savings feature, save for future investments with the safe lock, and budget for your house rent with the rent money feature.

If you’re not just looking for an all-in-one financial tool, then you should check out Piggyvest.

Google Sheet

Google Sheets is one of the best personal budgeting tools you should consider if you are looking for something basic. Think of Google Sheets as your regular jotter and pen, but in this case, a cloud-based jotter and pen.

One that makes Google Sheets a catch is that there are already templates for different finance purposes you can use to create yours. 

However, you can create your budgeting template with a blank sheet. All you need to do is key in your data and there you have a budgeting tool.

Alat By Wema

Alat By Wema is a digital financial product by the renowned Wema Bank. It offers diverse financial features like savings, wallet, and payment features.

With Alat By Wema, you can schedule payments, automate savings, and create a wallet for future investment.

This is a great option to automate your bills and keep track of your finances seamlessly.

Cowrywise

Cowrywise is one of the best personal budgeting tools you should consider if you want something that will make you disciplined with money.

It offers diverse financial options, but the one feature that keeps people coming back is the option of locking their money for a certain time.

For instance, if you are saving for a project, you can lock the money for this duration and earn interest while at it.

This feature is recommended for budgeting because it helps you allocate a portion of your income for future events.

Expensify

Expensify, as the name implies, is a budgeting tool that helps you manage your expenses with one click. It’s accessible as both a website and a mobile app. 

It helps you to track and manage your expenses at a  go without the hassle of the paperwork

With this tool, you can input your numbers seamlessly and download them as a PDF without losing track of your finances.

There are other budgeting tools that you may consider. However, we think that these are the best personal budgeting tools to use. 

PocketApp

PocketApp is a web app powered by Piggyvest that allows you to control your spending wisely.

With the pocket app, you can automate your spending and even earn cash back. 

Another reason why pocketapp is one of the best personal budget tools to use is that it helps you to create a virtual shop as a business owner.

When you create a shop on the pocket app, you can add your team members and control every spending from anywhere in the world.

Beginner-Friendly Guide On Creating A Budget

Knowing that these tools are available is not enough to maintain a budget. You need to master the act of creating budgets.

In the next paragraphs, we will share a beginner-friendly guide you can implement to create a budget:

Know Your Income

The first step to effective budgeting is knowing your income status. This is the first auditing to do before you can think of budgeting.

Understanding how much you earn will help you create a budget that works for you without pressure.

It’ll also help you to see your financial loopholes and work towards having income streams that truly cater to your needs.

Avoid Impulse Spending

This may sound like a broken record but you do have to train your mind to do away with impulse spending.

While budgeting helps you to stay organized in your finances, impulse spending does the absolute opposite.

So, to get your budgeting to work for you, it’s important to get impulse spending in check.

Plan Ahead

Another way to create a budgeting principle that works is to plan ahead of your finances. Budgeting is first of all a mental work before executing it physically. 

For instance, as a salary earner, you know the exact money to expect in a month. Begin by planning where your money will go before the salary is paid.

Sum up your expenses and budget according to your income. Planning helps stay ahead of your finances. It gives you clarity and promotes financial forecasts.

Hence, to be great at budgeting, it’s recommended to spend time planning your money thoroughly before spending it.

Why Budgeting Is Important

Budgeting is important for so many reasons including giving you clarity on how to control your money, planning for your retirement, helping you make better investment decisions, helping manage your money and so much more.

Budgeting is a major financial exercise to conduct if you must stay on top of your money goals. Spending without budgeting is likely to drive without servicing your engine. Your engine will get knocked and pack up.

Once you start budgeting, you’ll discover how much you have been giving away and will find better ways to curb your money troubles.

Hence, if you want to be better at money management, budgeting is an activity you need to consider to achieve impactful results.

Conclusion

Managing money isn’t a walk in the park. It requires determination, intentionality, and resilience. However, if you make use of any of these budgeting tools listed in this article, you are guaranteed to make significant progress.

This is not financial advice, you’re expected to conduct personal research to understand what works for you or consult a financial expert for candid financial advice.