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Lindsay wrote to me recently and said:
As much as I try and budget I just don’t seem to know where my money goes and its only once I sit down with my monthly statements that I realise why I am still in so much debt! I owe $1000’s and have $0.00 in my savings account, yet I continue to be reckless with money and not stick to my budget. Can you suggest some ways of watching what I spend without it becoming a major hassle?
Does this sound familiar? Are you spending money, yet you don’t know where it’s going? There is a solution and its right in the palm of your hand!
As I told Lindsay, we use our mobile phones for just about everything these days, from playing online bingo to engaging in social media, so why not use it to track your expenses? There are incredible budgeting tools available that are completely different to traditional budget style accounting and some of them are even free. By using a tracking tool you can keep a real time record of what you spend, deducted off the budgeted amount you have stipulated. This makes it easy for you to see how everything adds up and where your money goes. No more lots receipts and papers, it is all there in your phone.
I may not be a big fan of budgets, but part of my negativity is due to the time and effort it takes to make and stick to one. I find it tedious to have to run to your spreadsheet every time you get home to write down what you have spent and where your money went. But if you can use your mobile to manage your money, what better way to go? The mobile budgeting tools offer features such as expense tracking, day to day spend and calculation of available funds versus monthly expenses. The figures are then available to you anytime and you can keep on top of your financial situation without going into the red. You can sync your budgeting apps with your bank account, through a secure process, so that every time you log in, all your latest transactions are automatically downloaded from your bank, and uploaded into your tracking tool. It becomes a breeze to keep track of everything.
Income and expense fluctuations can also be calculated and some of the mobile apps actually link directly to your account. Automatically, neat pie charts appear and stats are calculated. It saves hours and when you need to look back into a transactions, you can track it in a matter of minutes. I advised Lindsay to look at her mobile as more than just a communication device and to start using it to budget effectively. In the long run her mobile can save her money, reduce her debt and put some much-needed savings into her currently empty account!
If you have more tips for Lindsay about managing money with a mobile let us hear them!