It is that time again already, that time that comes around once every two years when my husband and I get to reevaluate the status of our cell phone plan and choose new phones. Of course, it is an exciting time but it is not all that exciting because it involves spending money. It is money that we must spend though because we have chosen to forego a land line and have just cell phones. We also do not have many options where we live for internet access – we could get it if we pay for a land line but we do not want to do that, cable does not come to our house, and satellite internet is outrageously expensive. So, two years ago we added mobile broadband to our cell phone plan so that we could have internet at home. That contract is part of the cell phone contract and it is up for review now too.
To make a long story short, within the next few days we will be getting iPhones. I am excited to see what kinds of things I can do with the iPhone because there are so many apps to choose from. In the interest of seeing whether there is a good app in the personal finance department, I decided to take a look around online. Here’s what I found.
HomeBudget is an app by Anishu and it is available at the Apple App Store. The full version costs $4.99, but there is a lite version available for free which has a limited number of expense entries and income entries. HomeBudget lets you manage account balances, budgets, and bills. Of course, it will only work well if you are diligent about entering information but entering the information is easy and well worth the effort to have a clear up-to-the-minute picture of your finances.
Ace Budget is currently on sale for 99 cents. It is simpler than HomeBudget in that it tracks your budget and your spending but not bills or account balances. Still, you can see at a glance whether you are staying on track with your budget and where you are going astray.
These are just a couple of the many offerings that are available. It will be interesting to see which one I end up choosing and whether it will help me to keep my finances in good shape.
Photo by fierst on morguefile.com.