Money Monitor: Expense Tracker

I have a very limited budget and wanted to be able to run reports so I could try and see where J could cut back so I could have money to use elsewhere. I absolutely love the variety and details of their reporting. I do wish under budgets it had an “envelope” function where you could put money into a budget without a transaction. I usually have to put pieces of my paycheck aside for different bill, but I still have the money in my account until I have saved up enough to pay the bill. It would be nice if it would let you set money aside from your account without having to be linked to an expenditure , similar to the app GoodBudget. GoodBudget lets you set aside money into an “envelope” based on money you currently have and without you needing to show it as spent right then and there. Still, this app does not charge a monthly fee (GoodBudget is about $10/mo) and the flexibility they have with reporting is phenomenal (something most apps I saw didn’t really have). You also don’t have to make an account or give access to you bank account. Plus, you can take pictures of your receipts and log them with each transaction! A feature I have only seen with this app (and I went through quite a few before purchasing this one)!

Pros: I had previously been using pocket expense, but they have been having syncing issues and I lost several months’ worth of data. This app had everything I needed: unlimited number of accounts, some sort of backup (I use Dropbox, but there is also an option to backup onto your desktop/laptop), and manual transaction entry. You can also email reports of transactions/budgeting history to yourself. Entering data is fairly easy, and budgets are highly customizable. You can also add spending categories as needed. I personally use tracking apps to make myself more aware of my spending, so apps like Mint that sync with your accounts automatically are pretty useless to me. It’s also much easier to add gift cards or prepaid cards on manual spending trackers. This app has a ton of features I never use, like recurring bill payments and dating transactions down to the second. I don’t find the ads particularly intrusive; they’re only a few seconds long. Cons: Users should know that they only have 500 transactions on the free app. There is the option to export your data to the paid version once you have reached that limit. The app also does not have a calendar view of all expenses, only of recurring bills. A final very nitpicky comment: the user interface feels old and clunky. These are extremely minor points though. Love this app!

Pros: Money Monitor is a great app to see where your money is going. It has the ability to track bills, expenses, income, and budgets. It has several reports that can be exported including income vs expenses, category report, bill report, and more. You can create custom categories and rename and delete default ones. The app also lets you set a frequency of bills, budgets and income. Cons: I am using the free version and it is is very ad heavy. I am also having an issue with transactions being added automatically (which I am sure I setup somewhere). The app is a bit cumbersome to add a new payee, but once added very easy to search and find it. It will take some time to set the app up (i.e. Salary, bills, payees, budgets, etc) but this is expected in most apps. It doesn't have any type of bank account linking (that I've seen) so transactions on a debit or credit card still need entered manually. Overall a great app. I've tried several others before committing to this app. This app does things many paid apps do (and paid meaning like $10/mo!). Overall, very impressed with the app and highly recommend it to track all of your finances.