MT: Handy Applications to Make College Finance Management Easier

MD: Make sure your budget is in order! Automate finance management and be able to save and afford much more than you used to

Useful Apps That Will Make Personal Finance Management Easier

"Being a college student is tough," says Amy, a student of Columbia University. "And it's not just because you have all the classes to attend and people to meet. It's the money - you never have enough. Whether I want to buy my essay or just order pizza, I always have to make calculations first. That's just how it is."

Statistics shows that coping with the financial aspect is the most difficult for freshmen, especially those who have to work their way through college. Having no habit of managing their spending and income, they find themselves at a loss. Getting used to such financial management takes time. Luckily, you don't have to do everything on your own. Gone are the times when you'd have to write everything down in your notebook. Today, multiple providers are ready to help you with financial management - and it's as easy as installing an application on your phone.

Mint

Worried how your pizza costs reflect on your total budget and wonder what you should cut on to make both ends meet? Mint will visualize it, as well as all the other transactions, labelling them automatically and giving you a complete picture of your spending. You don't have to make any calculations on paper - Mint will do it for you, sending notifications when your account goes under a certain threshold.

Goodbudget

Do you divide your monthly income into portions to plan your spending? If not, you should be. And if you don't quite know the spending categories just yet, use Goodbudget for a month or two. It will show you in simple pie charts where your money goes. Easily navigated and user-friendly, the app will become a perfect start for smarter financial management.

LearnVest

Forget the pie charts - LearnVest is for those who are dead serious about spending their money the right way. On top of providing articles on financial management, the application gives a chance to communicate with financial experts and ask them for recommendations on how to repay student loans or what expenses are to be covered first.

Slice

What if you want to keep track of all the purchases you've made? Slice is the answer. It will store the history of purchases along with receipts and shipping information and even give you the possibility to download the information as a bundle and then reupload it into another budgeting app.

TextbookMe

No college finance management will work properly without tackling the expensive books issue first. Those books that cost a fortune but that you will hardly open during the year. To compare prices and find the best deals on books, use TextbookMe. It will help you save a lot on all those reading materials that are definitely above your budget.

CheckPlease Lite

A few dollars that you lost when someone split the bill the wrong way can be annoying. Let CheckPlease Lite do it for you. The app will make sure that all the calculations are correct and the costs are split evenly, including the tip.