For Teachers
For Parents
Best Money Saving Apps
Saving your money just got a whole lot easier with our rundown of the best budgeting apps for students. Luckily there are some absolutely brilliant apps out there which help with budgeting to leave you with a bit more in your pocket at the end of every month. These apps work in the background, helping to save money that you would otherwise have spent by siphoning it away into your savings account. This should make it easier to budget and keep track of your money.
The power of smartphones and tablets continues to grow, let tech do the hard work managing your money in the new year. There’s now a wave of banking apps that give you a helping hand with budgeting, saving and managing your cash in a way traditional banks don’t. All of the apps we’re including in this round-up are both FCA-approved and regulated open banking providers.
Although these apps aren’t solely meant for budgeting, the main ones we feature in this guide can really help you to keep your finances in check. With so many great options for finance apps available today, there really is something for everyone. With little to no bare of entry in the way of fees or account minimums, there is nothing stopping you from getting started today!
These are must-have apps if you’re looking to save money, avoid overdrafts and always get the best deals. Let’s take a look at the top money-saving apps that can help you save money effortlessly.
1. Mint
Absolutely packed full of features, this is probably the most comprehensive budgeting app on the market. Due to its features and functionalities, we consider it as the friendliest and easiest apps to manage the finances. The Mint app allows you to add all your banking accounts and then view them on a single dashboard so you’ll be able to see all your transactions in one place.
Mint sends you reminders regarding your due dates for paying bills, while also allowing you to create and follow a budget. Minting money with Mint can be quite a thing once you know how to manage all of your hard-earned money.
Price: Free
2. Chip
If you find it hard to save money each month, then the Chip app could be the answer. It’s free and compatible with most UK bank accounts. Once you connect it to your online banking, it gathers information about your spending and uses that data to work out how much you can afford to save. Every few days it transfers an amount it believes to be affordable into a separate savings account.
Chip’s clever algorithm calculates how much money you can afford to save by monitoring users’ everyday spending over a week. The amount is then automatically moved into a Chip savings account. The app is set up to ensure it only has read-only access to user’s bank accounts and savings can be withdrawn at any time. Best bit: The money is moved over automatically so you save with little to zero effort.
Price: Free
Download for iOS and Android
3. Monzo
This app is helpful for tracking your spending, setting a budget, splitting bills with friends. Not specifically a budgeting app but Monzo has many of the same features as the apps in this list. Plus, it has the added bonus of already being a bank (our #1 student bank in fact!), so you don’t need an extra app just for budgeting. Things like savings pots and instant notifications on spending make it easier than ever to track your spending and budget accordingly. Monzo is a banking app that offers an entirely separate (contactless) bank card that can be topped up from your regular account.
The app provides instant balance updates every single time you make a purchase. It also allows users to set up various spending budgets for groceries, transport, entertainment and other categories. Your spending and saving are all immediately visible to browse on the app.
4. GoHenry
gohenry is a financial tool for children aged between six and 18, and for their parents. Parents access their account through the gohenry app and use it to top up their child’s account. They can also set controls on their children’s spending habits.
Children are given a gohenry Visa prepaid card which can be used to make purchases in shops and online and to withdraw cash from ATMs. They can only spend the money that’s on the card, so there’s no danger of debt or overdrawn accounts. They can use the app to see their balance and the spending limits you’ve set for them.
5. Acorns
One of the most popular and easy-to-use money-saving app out there, Acorns helps beginners get started with investing, while also proactively saving money in small increments. This can help you save more every month on top of what you are already saving. With the Acorns app, you’ll do some sort of initial set up, where you specify an amount of money that you want to transfer each week or each month to get transferred into your investment account. You’ll also get some say on where you’ll be investing the money (in stocks, bonds, etc), but it’s typically very low-risk. Overall, Acorns offers five different portfolios to choose from, from conservative to aggressive risk factors, so you can decide how aggressively you want to invest your money.
One thing that makes Acorns unique is its “round-up” function, where you link the app to your primary spending account, and for every purchase you make, the app rounds up the amount to a full dollar amount and puts the extra change into your investment account. The more your spend, the more you save – it doesn’t get much easier to save than that!
Price: $5 to begin investing; account management fees start at $1/month.
6. You Need A Budget (YNAB)
You Need A Budget helps you stay within the confines of your income and understands that everyone has a budget constraint. The best budget app does not advise you to think or plan for different ways to earn something extra. It instead helps you analyze your budget and plan practical ways to deal with your expenses and mitigate financial issues if they crop up.
The app is a brilliant personal finance manager that helps you manage every penny. The app’s usefulness lies in the fact that it has helped its users clear off their debts with proper planning and account management.
Also, it has the option of taking up online classes that coach you on budgeting and planning expenditure. Therefore, if you do not have the skills to use the app or plan your budget with its help, reach out for live coaching.
Price: Free 30-day trial, then $6.99/month (billed annually at $83.99)
7. Wally
Wally is one of the best tracking expenses app. More often than not, we indulge in buying splurge and then forget to record it. By the end of the month, when we have nothing substantial left, we are left wondering about where all the money went. Here comes the role of Wally app in managing the expenses.
Wally is one of the best finance tracking apps and is a right platform if you loathe entering in your expenditure manually. The app shall do the job for you if you take pictures of the receipts. You, therefore, do not need to work your brain up thinking where you have spent your money. Keeping track of your expenses is pretty easy with this app, and it helps you keep your finances organized.
Price: Free
Download for iOS
8. Coinbase
Coinbase is a popular cryptocurrency app ideal for anyone who is interested in cryptocurrencies. Coinbase is a great investing app for you to explore Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and more. Coinbase is an app that allows you to monitor various cryptocurrency markets and handle all major maintenance and investment tasks directly in the app. With Coinbase, you can send and request bitcoins right through the app, buy and sell a cryptocurrency, and also track various cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin can be confusing, but the Coinbase app makes it easy to understand and navigate as possible by centralizing all core functions.
Bitcoin is certainly gaining speed in the investment world – get started with cryptocurrency investing with Coinbase today.
Price: Free
9. Robinhood
Another money saving app is Robinhood. Robinhood was created with the goal of making investing easier and more accessible to the public. It’s simple to use with an easily navigable interface, and specifically designed to be user-friendly for beginners. Plus, the app is totally free! The only potential downside is that you can’t use Robinhood for retirement or IRA accounts – you’ll have to use a more traditional account provider for that. If your most important interest is just learning more about investing, and getting some strategy tips as well as full lay of the investing landscape, then Robinhood is probably your best choice.
Price: Free
10. Voucher apps
There are a few different voucher and discount code apps so it’s worth browsing around to find the one that suits you best. VoucherCodes is a good one, with national and local discounts so you can always get the best deals.
Vouchercloud also allows you to find deals local to you, using your location. Finally, HotUKDeals has a load of discounts and codes.
Cashback apps
There are a few different cashback apps and it’s hard to choose a favourite. We like the TopCashback and Quidco apps, both of which are free. With these apps, you can download vouchers and discounts, monitor your cashback balance and make withdrawals, and even earn extra bonuses.
The TopCashback app even lets you earn money buying some groceries, you just need to snap and upload your receipt. Money for purchases you were going to make anyway, hard to argue with that.
The Quidco app allows you to earn cash back when you shop, either on your mobile or in-store. To earn cashback online, you just need to check if the retailer is offering cashback using the app and complete your transaction with the tracked link.
As you can see, there are many options for using investment apps to grow and save money for the future – and this list is just three apps of the dozens that are out there. Do some research to decide which app best suits your specific needs and interests, educate yourself, and get started saving for your future today.
Trending Topics
Popular App Lists
