19 Apps to Track Your Spending in 2023

Tracking your spending is one of the first steps toward achieving financial stability and building substantial savings. By knowing exactly where your money goes, you can gain valuable insights, make informed decisions, and develop better financial habits. 

Why You Should Track Your Spending

Tracking your spending is a powerful tool that empowers you to make informed financial decisions and prioritize saving. You’ll gain control over your finances and accelerate your savings journey by doing the following: 

• Categorizing expenses 
• Setting aside savings from each paycheck 
• Utilizing expense trackers 
• Embracing the cash envelope system 
• Creating a budget 
• Cutting down on unnecessary expenses 

Remember, consistency and mindfulness are key. With every tracking effort, you inch closer to achieving your financial goals and creating a solid foundation of financial stability.

Best Apps for Tracking Your Spending

Apps can help you track your expenses, create budgets, set financial goals, and gain insights into your spending habits. They often offer features such as expense categorization, bill reminders, saving goals, and syncing with your bank accounts and credit cards to provide accurate and up-to-date information. 

1. Mint

Mint helps you save and track money by automatically categorizing your expenses, creating budgets, and providing insights into your spending patterns. It also sends alerts for bill reminders and helps you set financial goals.

2. Personal Capital

Personal Capital offers comprehensive money management by tracking your spending, analyzing your investment portfolios, and providing personalized financial advice. It helps you optimize your investments, manage your net worth, and plan for retirement.

3. You Need a Budget (YNAB)

You Need a Budget helps you save money by using a zero-based budgeting approach, where you assign every dollar a job. It encourages you to prioritize expenses, avoid overspending, and build a buffer for unexpected costs.

4. PocketGuard

PocketGuard could help you save money by tracking your expenses, identifying recurring bills, and providing insights into your spending patterns. It alerts you when you’re approaching budget limits and suggests areas where you can cut back.

5. Wally

Wally allows you to track expenses by scanning receipts or manually entering transactions. It helps you understand where your money is going, set savings goals, and provides visualizations to monitor your financial progress.

6. Spendee 

Spendee helps you save and track money by providing a clear overview of your income and expenses. It allows you to set budgets, track your financial progress with visualizations, and even collaborate with others for shared expenses.

7. Goodbudget 

Goodbudget uses the envelope budgeting system to help you track your spending and save money. It allows you to allocate funds to different categories and visually see how much you have left in each envelope to avoid overspending.

8. Toshl Finance 

Toshl Finance enables you to track your expenses, set budgets, and save money by offering colorful visuals and graphs to understand your spending habits. It also provides bill reminders and lets you set financial goals.

9. Mvelopes

Mvelopes combines digital budgeting with the envelope system, allowing you to allocate funds to specific categories and track your spending in real time. It offers tools for debt reduction and goal tracking, and it provides insights into your financial health.

10. Albert

Albert helps you save money by analyzing your income and expenses, identifying areas where you can save, and automatically setting aside money into a savings account. It also offers personalized financial advice to help you make smarter financial decisions.

11. Clarity Money 

Clarity Money helps you save and track money by analyzing your spending patterns, identifying subscription services you may not need, and suggesting potential savings. It also provides bill tracking and allows you to set savings goals.

12. Expensify 

Expensify is designed for business expenses but can also be used for personal expense tracking. It lets you capture receipts, track mileage, and create expense reports. It helps you stay organized and track your spending for reimbursement or tax purposes.

13. Honeydue 

Honeydue is a personal finance app that helps couples manage their finances together. It allows you to track shared expenses, set budgets, and receive notifications when bills are due. It promotes transparency and communication in managing shared finances.

14. Prism 

Prism is a bill management app that helps you track and pay your bills on time. It provides reminders for upcoming due dates, organizes all your bills in one place, and allows you to make payments directly through the app.

15. Splitwise 

Splitwise simplifies splitting expenses with friends and roommates. It lets you track shared expenses, settle debts, and maintain a running balance sheet. It eliminates the hassle of splitting bills manually and helps you maintain financial fairness.

16. Dollarbird 

Dollarbird is a calendar-based expense tracker that helps you visualize and plan your finances. It allows you to track your income and expenses, set financial goals, and forecast your cash flow over time.

17. Simplifi by Quicken 

Simplifi by Quicken is a personal finance app that helps you track spending, set budgets, and monitor your financial health. It offers automatic transaction categorization, bill tracking, and customizable financial insights.

18. HomeBudget

HomeBudget is a comprehensive expense-tracking app that allows you to manage your personal and household expenses. It lets you track income, expenses, and bills, and it offers budgeting tools to help you save and monitor your financial progress.

19. Fudget 

Fudget is a simple and intuitive expense-tracking app that allows you to create and manage budgets easily. It focuses on simplicity and lets you track your income and expenses without unnecessary complexities.

How to Use an Expense Tracker 

An expense tracker can be a valuable tool for managing your finances and gaining insights into your spending habits. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to effectively use an expense tracker:

• Select an expense tracker that suits your needs, or you can use spreadsheet templates or online budgeting tools.
• Create an account on the chosen expense tracker platform. Connect your bank accounts, credit cards, and any other financial accounts you want to track. This allows the expense tracker to import your transactions automatically.
• Review the imported transactions and assign appropriate categories to each expense. Categorizing your expenses helps you analyze your spending patterns and identify areas where you can adjust.
  
• Some expense trackers allow you to customize categories to align with your spending habits. Consider modifying existing categories or adding new ones if needed. Tailoring the categories to your lifestyle can improve the accuracy of tracking and analysis.
  
• Determine spending limits for each category based on your financial goals and priorities. Set realistic and achievable budget amounts for different expense categories. The expense tracker will monitor your spending against these budgets and provide alerts or notifications when you approach or exceed your limits.

1. Gain Awareness and Identify Patterns

Tracking your spending helps you become aware of your financial habits and identify patterns in your expenses. Categorize your expenses into “needs” (essential expenses like housing, food, and utilities) and “wants” (discretionary expenses like dining out or entertainment). Analyzing these categories allows you to pinpoint areas where you can potentially reduce spending and redirect those funds toward savings.

2. Create a Budget

Developing a budget is a fundamental step in managing your finances effectively. Outline your income, fixed expenses (e.g., rent, loan payments), and variable expenses (e.g., groceries, entertainment). Assign realistic spending limits for each category, allowing room for savings. Track your spending against the budget regularly and make adjustments as necessary.

Choosing a budgeting method that suits your financial goals, lifestyle, and preferences is essential. Experiment with different methods or combine elements from multiple approaches until you find the one that works best for you. Remember, the key to successful budgeting is consistency, tracking, and adjusting as needed.

Embracing the Cash Envelope System

For those who prefer a more tangible approach, consider implementing the cash envelope system. Allocate specific amounts of cash into labeled envelopes for different spending categories (e.g., groceries, entertainment). Once an envelope is empty, you know you’ve reached your spending limit for that category. This method provides a visual reminder and encourages mindful spending.

Using a Budget to Cut Down on Unnecessary Expenses

Identify areas where you can reduce expenses without sacrificing your essential needs. Consider negotiating bills, reducing dining out frequency, finding cheaper alternatives, or reviewing subscription services for potential cancellations. Small changes can add up over time and free up more funds for savings.

Allocate Savings from Each Paycheck

Make saving a priority by setting aside a portion of your paycheck specifically for savings or retirement. Treat savings like any other bill, assigning it a fixed percentage or amount. Automate this process by setting up automatic transfers to a separate savings account. Doing so ensures that savings become a consistent habit and gradually build a financial cushion.