Budgeting: Tools from UC students

Ava Gyurcsik, UC junior, uses Mint budgeting app. It is a planner and tracker that connects to your debit card and allows you to set a monthly budget for yourself. You can set a budget for all different types of categories like food, shopping and gas. If you exceed your monthly goal in an area, Mint notifies you and you can readjust or plan accordingly for the rest of the month.

Claire Hohlefelder, UC freshman, uses the budgeting tool and spend setter on the Huntington bank app. This tracks her expenses from each of her cards, shows what she is spending her money on and how much she budgeted for each category. In each category, it shows if she is on track to stay under or match her monthly budget goal.

Lauren LaBanc, UC senior, creates a Google doc each month and fills in her expenses day by day. She labels all her pay days, subscription payments and events where she knows she will be spending more than usual. This works for her because she can see everything in one spot for the month and can plan for big purchases and savings.

Other popular free budgeting apps include:

• PocketGuard  
• Goodbudget
• You Need A Budget  
• Wally