
<p>A budgeting app is an app that helps you track your income and spending and makes it easier for you to have control over your money. Depending on the app, some may connect to your bank account and credit card and categorise your spending to match the budget you choose.</p>



<p>The budgeting app you decide to pick is important and it is best to pick one based on which features are tailored to your individual needs the best. All kinds of people or groups need to budget such as students, families and businesses.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Apps on the Market</h2>



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<p>We’ve done a bit of research and can try to help you make the decision of which to choose. Below is a list of budgeting apps and their niches:</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Chip</h3>



<p>Voted as the best finance app in 2022, this app is suited for a broad range of people. Powered by AI, it calculates how much money you can spend and also save. It removes small amounts of money into a savings account from your current account periodically to help you save.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Honeydue</h3>



<p>For people with shared bank accounts, Honeydue allows you to see one another’s bank accounts, loans and transactions with the freedom of choosing what you allow the other person to see. The app also has a built-in texting feature where you can discuss your expenses.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Emma</h3>



<p>“Sign up for a FREE one-week trial”… we all know how this story goes. You end up paying for the subscription along with all the others, it all adds up. Emma can help remove all that mess, a powerful app that helps cut down on wasteful spending and also allows for commission-free stock trading on the companies you love.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Mydus</h3>



<p>The go to tool to manage your Cost of Living, Mydus can automatically categorise your finances into the 50/30/20 rule (see below), and in doing so help you end up with more at the end of the month, in term more at retirement.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Cleo</h3>



<p>Has the world&#8217;s first AI assistant dedicated to personal finance, you can ask questions at any time and learn about your finances in a stress-free, easy way.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Snoop</h3>



<p>Receive notices about upcoming bills, suggestions on where you could be saving money and track spending across multiple accounts.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tips &amp; Tricks</h2>



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<p>They all have their unique features but you have to find the right app for you. Here’s a few things to consider when picking a budgeting app:</p>



<ul>
<li>Ease of syncing with bank accounts</li>



<li>The way it categorises your expenses- visual charts etc</li>



<li>Your financial goals</li>



<li>Fees</li>



<li>Security and privacy</li>



<li>Ease of access</li>



<li>Check customer reviews</li>
</ul>



<p>If you decide on using a budgeting app, or just decide to wing it, these tips on how to best use a budgeting app will be of use regardless:</p>



<ul>
<li>50/30/20 rule: see the section below for more information.</li>



<li>Understand your income: so you can set yourself goals on how much is a fair amount to save and what for.</li>



<li>Be mindful when purchasing things</li>



<li>Separate needs from wants</li>



<li>Consistency and patience- it is hard to cut down on spending and it won&#8217;t come easily, but will get better with time</li>



<li>Familiarise yourself with the software &#8211; some apps have very cool features or features that are hard to wrap your head around.</li>
</ul>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is the 50/30/20 rule?</h2>



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<p>The 50/30/20 rule is a simple rule that is helpful when managing your spending. The table below explains each section.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-regular"><table><thead><tr><th><strong>% of Salary</strong></th><th><strong>Name</strong></th><th><strong>Description/Examples</strong></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>50</strong></td><td>Needs</td><td>rent, car payments, groceries, insurance, and health care</td></tr><tr><td><strong>30</strong></td><td>Wants</td><td>things that are not absolutely essential such as gym instead of at-home workouts, eating out, going to the cinema, expensive clothes</td></tr><tr><td><strong>20</strong></td><td>Savings</td><td>this includes investments and creating emergency funds</td></tr></tbody></table><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Table breaking down the 50/30/20 rule</figcaption></figure>



<p>The pros of using this rule are that it is useful for long-term savings and retirement, it can be simplified by setting up automatic payments and it isn&#8217;t too restrictive, so it is sustainable.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="422" height="316" src="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Budgeting1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-93" srcset="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Budgeting1.png 422w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Budgeting1-300x225.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 422px) 100vw, 422px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chart from nerdwallet showing a pie chart with the 50/30/20 rule</figcaption></figure>
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<p>Mydus integrates this rule into its core niche of Cost of Living, it automatically breaks a users’ spending into Committed spending, Everyday spending, and Savings, which can be aligned with the 50/30/20 rule (Needs, Wants, and Savings) respectively. If you’re looking to integrate this approach into your life, Mydus is a great place to start, and it just takes a few minutes to sign up.</p>
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<p>Budgeting apps can save you so much time and hassle and are really great for helping you reach your financial goals, hopefully, this article will help you get started on using one!</p>


A tablet with a screen showing an excel file for budgeting

What are budgeting apps and how to use them?


<p>Excel has been around since the 1980s, and in that time there hasn&#8217;t been a single alternative to take away its title as the best spreadsheeting tool. So a combination of Excel and budgeting sounds like a match made in heaven. Well you&#8217;re not wrong, in this article we discuss some of the key benefits and contenders for an Excel based budgeting tool.</p>



<p>A budgeting template tracks income and expenditures and allows you to stick to whatever budget you set for yourself, it allows you to keep an eye on money and take action when needed. These are very common for large corporations and also for individuals, for example, uni students, planning big events such as a wedding and for households.</p>



<p><em><sub>Did you know: 88% of CFOs use spreadsheets for budgeting</sub></em></p>



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<p>You may be wondering why so many people use these, well some of the <strong>pros of using budgeting templates include:</strong></p>



<ul>
<li><strong>Most people know how to use Excel</strong>: time is saved on training with so many online courses, universities teaching students how to use it and overall ease of access.</li>



<li><strong>Ease of sharing</strong>: Data and file sharing is as easy as attaching the template in a email</li>



<li><strong>Minimal secure data</strong>: There&#8217;s no need to input bank details, and you only input total values. If somebody gets a hold of your budget template they won&#8217;t be able to decipher much.</li>



<li><strong>Customisable</strong>: My personal favourite pro of these is the customisability. You can edit the template to show exactly what you want to see, be it charts, tables, or even tracking the amount you&#8217;ve spent coffees.</li>
</ul>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The best free budgeting Excel templates</strong></h2>



<p>We&#8217;ve taken some time to review some of the budgeting templates out there and have produced a list of our favourites.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Expense tracker by Sheetgo</strong></h3>



<p>This is ideal for small businesses/families, it has a feature called expense tracker workflow which gives you a better understanding of where your expenses come from, you can share this with each user (employee/family member) so they can track their spending and all are combined into the expenses master sheet where budgeting data is combined for an overview of company/family spending.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="936" height="524" src="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-88" srcset="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel1.png 936w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel1-300x168.png 300w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel1-768x430.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 936px) 100vw, 936px" /></figure>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Annual budget planner by budget templates</strong></h3>



<p>For those of you focusing on long-term financial planning, this is a great option. Offering a yearly budget planner, you can customise additional income and investments, great for seeing trends in spending and longer-term investments.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Portfolio tracker &#8211; spreadsheet.com</strong></h3>



<p>For shareholders, actively helps keep an eye on your investments over time. Most of this is the return on investment over time, also has visual representation and loss and gain columns, perfect for those both experienced and new to investing, though this is not a budgeting template it can definitely help financially.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="926" height="406" src="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-89" srcset="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel2.png 926w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel2-300x132.png 300w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Excel2-768x337.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /></figure>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Vertex 42 &#8211; money management for kids</strong></h3>



<p>Considering the lack of financial education in schools, this is an amazing tool to help with Money management for kids. It includes a demo video or tutorial, helping children become financially literate.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Pear budget</strong></h3>



<p>A free spreadsheet that tracks monthly household spending, they also have an analysis tab that looks through expenses from different categories and shows the difference between actual and budgeted spending. There is also an updated online version which does not require download and is available for a free 30-day download.</p>
</div>
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<p>All of these are useful, but this depends on your requirements. To understand what your require from a budgeting template, <strong>first answer yourself these</strong>:</p>



<ul>
<li>What are you trying to budget for?</li>



<li>How often do you want to update it?</li>



<li>Is this spreadsheet clear, do I understand what it&#8217;s telling me?</li>
</ul>



<p>Excel templates are a great way to budget, no need to give bank details and easily accessible, we hope this article has given a good insight into budgeting templates!</p>


The best free budget templates in Excel


<p>A budgeting app is an app that allows you to track your spending and income and allows you to set goals on how much spending you want to do. The apps get information from your bank accounts and download your transactions. In a digitalising world, it&#8217;s completely normal to wonder if your data is safe, especially hearing of big companies being hacked. This article will give some basic security tips and also give the rundown on which apps would be best.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Some general safety features</h2>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2-factor authentication</h3>



<p>This is exactly how it sounds, 2 factors to authenticate you. The first is usually your password, but the second will be a text sent to your phone number or a code generated from an authentication app.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Complex passwords</h3>



<p>Use different passwords and make hard-to-guess passwords- this means not using your name in passwords and making sure it has a mix of capital and lowercase letters, special characters and numbers. You can even go as far as using a password generator that will generate and store your passwords for you.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Watch out for phishing scams</h3>



<p>Phishing scams attempt to retrieve some important information from you. One of the more popular scams is where someone pretends to be your bank, most commonly via text or email, asking for bank or personal details. A good way to avoid these is to always be careful, and if you see an email from your bank, contact them on a known number to double check.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Don’t click on links</h3>



<p>Another way for phishing scams to retrieve information from you is using malware. Scammers can install this onto your devices through links, which can infect your device and allow access to your passwords. So also make sure you have an antivirus installed.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Be careful on public wifi</h3>



<p>Public wifi is exactly that, public! So be careful what activities you are doing on these networks, they may not be secure and someone may be watching and intercepting things like secure passwords. If you can, avoid using them altogether.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="360" height="228" src="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Security1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-82" srcset="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Security1.png 360w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Security1-300x190.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></figure>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Big budgeting apps, and their built-in safety features</h2>



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<p>Mobile apps, especially those working with your personal secure data, have to think about keeping you and your data safe. They can do that by making sure they keep your data safe, and of course, only open for you. We&#8217;ve identified some of the big budgeting apps who are focused on exactly this.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Emma</h3>



<ul>
<li>SSL 256 Bit encryption, a security protocol that banks use</li>



<li>Biometric security authentication</li>



<li>FCA regulated</li>
</ul>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Moneyhub</h3>



<ul>
<li>FCA regulated</li>



<li>Doesn&#8217;t sell data to third parties hence the subscription fee</li>



<li>Bank-level authentication means it doesn&#8217;t store your passwords</li>
</ul>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Mydus</h3>



<ul>
<li>SSL 256 Bit encryption, a security protocol that banks use</li>



<li>FCA regulated</li>



<li>Doesn&#8217;t sell data to third parties</li>



<li>Biometric security authentication</li>
</ul>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Hyperjar</h3>



<ul>
<li>256-bit encryption</li>
</ul>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Mint</h3>



<ul>
<li>Makes you verify your account periodically</li>



<li>Only stores the bare minimum data</li>



<li>Multi-layered hardware and software encryption</li>
</ul>
</div>



<p>Also, an alternative to consider may be <strong>Good Budget</strong> which doesn&#8217;t have the same security features since it does not connect to your bank account.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">256-bit encryption</h2>



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<p>You may be asking what is 256-bit encryption? Well high level answer is that it locks all your data up when transporting or storing to ensure that even if intercepted, it would not be discernible.</p>



<p>And for those who want the technical answer&#8230; 256-bit encryption is a data/file encryption technique, that uses a 256-bit key to encrypt and decrypt files of data, and it is used in most modern encryption algorithms.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="680" src="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-1024x680.jpg" alt="code in green text running down a screen in matrix style" class="wp-image-201" srcset="https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https://cms.mydusfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash_2560x1700_200-2048x1360.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
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<p>To summarise, there are many pros of budgeting apps and for the most part, they are very safe, following these tips will significantly reduce your risk of having data stolen. However, if you feel this is still frightening there are many other ways to budget that don&#8217;t include giving bank information, such as using a log book or Excel budgeting templates.</p>



<p>We hope this article has been informative and given you an insight into safety and budgeting apps!</p>
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